Rent card blunder for deceased relatives

THREE times the pain . . . Helen Longley with the rent cards sent out by First Choice Homes

HELEN Longley was left shocked and upset when she received a rent payment card for her deceased parents.

She complained to First Choice Homes straight away. Staff assured Helen it wouldn’t happen again.

Less than a week later, another card arrived in the post. A third came several days after that.

Her mother and father —Robert and Marie Swingley — moved into a house in Buxton Place, Primrose Bank, 41 years ago with their three children.

Mrs Swingley died after suffering a brain haemorrhage in August, 1991. Mr Swingley died following a cancer battle in October, 2008. The house — earmarked for demolition — has been empty for some time.

Helen said: “When I got the first rent payment card I was really shocked and upset.

“It brought back some painful memories seeing their names on an official document like that but I understand that mistakes happen so when I phoned First Choice Homes and they apologised I thought that was the end of it. Staff told me they had just changed their payment system and said a letter of apology would be sent out in the post.

“The letter never arrived but another payment card came followed by another one. It’s just not on, it’s really insensitive.

“The cards have both my parents names on. My mum died almost 20 years ago and my dad just over two years ago so their names should not even be on the system anymore.

“I can’t understand how this has happened, especially three times in such a short space of time.”

A spokesman for First Choice Homes Oldham said: “Unfortunately on this occasion our procedure for preventing mailings being posted to deceased tenants was not followed in the correct manner but this issue has now been resolved.

“We can assure all our customers that we aim to ensure a similar situation does not occur. We have issued apology letters to people affected by the error and we will write to Helen Longley to offer our sincerest apologies.

“Different accounts attract different payment cards and unfortunately this is why Ms Longley received three different cards, one for each of the accounts previously held by Mr and Mrs Swingley.

“Although the property is now empty, the forwarding address attached to it was Ms Longley’s address, hence why the cards were sent to her.

“Under normal circumstances we do not send documentation to empty properties. We have now reviewed the accounts held by the late Mr and Mrs Swingley and we can confirm that Ms Longley will not be receiving anything from FCHO in the future.”