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That saying that "to make a mistake is human - but to really foul up, you need a computer" comes to mind today!
A tenant showed us a letter that he had received from the Council which pointed out that a bank standing order had been paid three days late and therefore he had gone three days into arears!
Honestly!
The tenant was a little mystified as he was more than £100 in credit - he liked to be in credit just in case he was sick etc., a sort of "insurance policy".
No one can really understand why the computer generated the letter. But it is interesting that someone who is in credit by a couple of weeks cand be ticked off because his bank is a couple of days late in transfering cash to the Council's bank.
Mind you, there is the well known case of the tenant who was continually 1p in arears and received a letting inviting him to the housing office to discuss the arears and to come to some arrangement to pay off the debt!
And then there was the case of the eldery lady who moved from a flat into a sheltered housing flat. At the request of the housing office, she moved within days. Unfortunately, the housing officer forgot to tell the computer that the normal one month notice to leave a flat was waived. The computer in it's infinate wisdom realised that the tenant could not have housing benefit on two properties, so added to her account the full rent on the flat that she had vacated for a full month! It took a couple of years - and a number of computer-generated letters threatening eviction - to sort that one out!
We seem to remember in the distant past something called a "rent collector" who used to visit once every two weeks. Cash or cheques were given to these rent collectors who then handed back a rent card with an autograph on and the amount paid.
Memory is a bit hazy now, but we cannot remember horrendous stories like we hear about today regarding cock-ups with tenants rent accounts.
It couldn't be that the computer combined with the banking system is not more efficient that the "rent collector". Of course it couldn't! When the system was changed, the Council told us that the new system was far more efficient - and the council is alway right!
Pity poor British Telecom! A tenant reported a fault on her telephone. So BT hot-footed it round to the flat to fix the problem.
But BT were unable to fix the fault on the phone. It wasn't because of lack of skills by the engineer that the phone company dispatched, or even because the wrong sort of leaves had fallen on the telephone wires.
It was because Gloucester City Council had goofed again - and had not consulted the Tenants Consultative Commitee.
A year or so ago, "suited" locks appeared on all the cupboard doors in the block. Inside these cupboards of every floor were the electric meters for the flats - some ordinary meters and others pre-payment card meters.
But the locks were put on the doors anyway - hey, now the council has to spent rent money on something!
When it was pointed out that tenants would not be able to "feed" their pre-payment meters there were blushes and an edict was made that said any cupboard that contained a prepayment meter would not be locked.
Anyway, when the now legendary new door entry system was installed, it was decreed that another cupboard would house the mechanism - and that a suited lock would be put on the door. We of course pointed out that the BT "distribution point" for the block was also in the cupboard which was to house the door entry mechanism.
So when BT wanted to fix the tenant's telephone earlier this evening, they could not get into the cupboard containing their "distribution point"!
When a situation like this arises, it is never between Monday and Friday and between 9 and 5!
So around 5.30, the BT engineer sought our assistance. We telephoned the "out of hours" number for Gloucester City Services who said yes they had a suited key and no they could not bring it down so that British Telecom could repair the telephone fault.
British Telecom, the tenant with a faulty telephone line and the TCC are not amused!