Questions of Cash: The council owes us money on behalf of our tenant

Q | My wife and daughter own a house in County Durham, rented out through letting agents. Currently, it is rented to a tenant on housing benefit. The rent is £87.70 and £86.54 of this is supposed to be paid directly by Durham County Council. Under the “paper bond scheme”, the property was rented to the tenant from 28 February this year without a deposit, with any damage paid for by the council. As part of this scheme, the property had to be brought up to their standard – at our cost – prior to the let being approved. It took Durham County Council until the end of July to start paying the rent. At present, the council owes arrears of £380 as it has not paid the rent for several weeks. It says the tenant was late in providing information and they cannot backdate the claim to the end of February. This decision is subject to an appeal. Can you assist with getting this resolved? AG, Durham.

A | Durham County Council has now agreed to pay the outstanding housing benefit. Ian Ferguson, its revenue and benefits manager, says: “We are in the process of writing to the tenant and the landlord … and to make the appropriate back-dated payments.” Your wife and daughter receive housing benefit payments slightly less than the rental rate they have set because housing benefit is capped on the basis of local market conditions, using a “local housing allowance”.

I’ve lost money because of a transfer

Q | I have a portfolio of funds, comprising about £500,000 in a Sipp [self-invested personal pension], £250,000 in an Isa and £100,000 in a fund and share account, held in Hargreaves Lansdown’s Vantage “supermarket” platform. I decided to move to Interactive Investor. I was told the transfer would take six to eight weeks. Seven months later, the transfer has not been completed. The Isa and share and fund account took roughly three months to transfer completely and the Sipp has been partially transferred. The cash element, which should be the easiest and quickest to transfer, is not to be transferred. I sold all my shares in the Sipp before the transfer, so there is a cash figure of over £50,000 which has been in limbo since January. I’ve lost at least £1,000 in the past seven months. Interactive Investor has offered me £100 in trading credits as a full and final settlement of my complaint. This does not nearly cover my losses and I’m still waiting for £193,000 of funds and cash to transfer. MC, London.

A | We can report that the transfers are now fully completed. Hargreaves Lansdown accepts that it failed to make one transfer when it should have done, while it claims that other transfers were delayed because of administrative changes to fund management that were simultaneously taking place at Interactive Investor. We are told by Interactive Investor that HL transferred the Sipp to the wrong fund on 23 June and it was only after we contacted the two companies at your request that your money was located and transferred to Interactive Investor. Danny Cox of HL says: “Due to the nature of investments, the transfer process can be a lengthy one, but it is clear that on this occasion [the reader] did not receive the usual high standard of service we aim to provide … We have offered a refund of the £75 exit charge plus offered £100 for his inconvenience which [the reader] has accepted.” A spokeswoman for Interactive Investor denies that it is to blame for the delays. She says: “We are deeply unhappy with the length of time [the reader’s] transfer has taken. We have offered [the reader] an additional £250 [trading] credit … We have done everything possible to collaborate with Hargreaves Lansdown and the other parties involved.” We are unhappy with this outcome, but you have chosen to accept the compensation.