Rejected bidding due to arrears

[Onlime]

Hello,

I wonder if anyone had similar experience.
I have been in temporary accommodation for over 3 years. Two weeks ago I bid for a house, one Thursday late afternoon all of a sudden I received a call from my council asking me to make a payment as my account was in arrears.
For over 3 years the council never attempted to inform me that my account was in arrears which was related to my emergency accommodation back in 2019. Because the call was very late in the day and out of blue I didn’t feel comfortable with the whole situation so I asked her to email me the details which she agreed but she told me if i didn’t pay within 24hrs my bid would be rejected ( so I was then being threatened) . Next day (Friday) she never sent me the email so I called them instead and I was able to make the payment. When I checked my bid status it said rejected.
Long story short, I emailed my housing officer which never responds at all always out of office so I forwarded the email to the enquiry address. Someone responded with the following message ‘I should have been told before, they are sorry and that I should keep bidding and hopefully there won’t be any issues’. Their exact words 😳
I am so angry, I have been in this flat for over 3 years bidding every week and my housing officer couldn’t be bothered to inform me the arrears can affect my bidding.
I know times are hard but why didn’t she tell me if she knew this could affect my bidding. I wonder what exactly is the housing officer role.
i am fuming 😡

I am truly sorry that this has happened to you, but it really is standard procedure to be prevented from bidding with any sort of rent arrears. However the council ought to have informed you of outstanding rent tied to a previous dwelling.

If I were you I would get an appointment with my local MP.

I've never been in your position OP, and don't understand the finer details but the council should surely know they can't just message people out of the blue and say 'give us some money NOW!' Have they never heard of scams and con artists?

They seriously need to make their procedures much more robust.

I do hope you get it sorted and get the house.

That's a bit rubbish
I do feel for you as it sounds like you found a great property to bid on. Can you send in complainant to housing that they rejected your bid for a previously undisclosed arrears? Send the complaint in tomorrow and you may find that action is taken to resolve or that they give you priority for future bids.

Complaints depts are separate to the teams and I'm in a difference service but our complaints team get onto us if it's a reasonable complaint!!

Send in Complaint not complainant

Thanks. Yes I managed to get an appointment with MP this Friday 🤞 fingers crossed something good will come out of this.
I asked them for a complaint form, I have not heard back. My house officer doesn’t even reply.