A COUNCIL is refusing to fully refund £7.5million it overcharged hundreds of its tenants across 22 years going back to 2002.

Liberal Democrat-run Mid Devon District Council previously promised the 1,243 tenants who had been paying too much rent would be refunded.

But now the council has said it will only give refunds for the previous six years dating to August 18, 2018, because the law prevented tenants taking action against it for earlier years.

Head of housing Simon Newcombe said the decision was based on legal advice which the council had taken from a Kings Counsel.

Mr Newcombe said: “Six years is the statutory limitation, meaning the maximum time after an event that legal proceedings can be started.”

The council also discussed the rent error issue with the Regulator for Social Housing, the Department for Work and Pensions, Bishop Fleming chartered accountants, the Devon Audit Partnership, and the Valuation Office.

The social housing regulator investigated the rent errors in Mid Devon which also saw 1,622 of the council’s 3,000 tenants pay too little over the same period, cumulatively totalling £8 million.

The regulator found there were ‘serious failings’ in the way the council had been delivering rent standard outcomes.

It said it was now ‘engaging intensively’ with the council to ensure sufficient change and improvement was being made.

Mr Newcombe said the council was not seeking to recover any money from tenants who had been undercharged, and their rents would not change for as long as the tenancy remained in place.

He said rents were corrected in January for those who had been overpaying.

The errors had no impact on other council services or charges because rental income was by law ring fenced into a housing revenue account, which could only be spent on council housing.