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Local Authority Housing Loans

APPENDICES

APPENDIX 1 - Summary Table

LOCAL AUTHORITY	Number of cases	Total refunds	Ave. refund	Highest no. of instalments (mths)	Highest refund	Lowest refund	Longest elapsed time (years)
Athlone UDC	74	£5,872.68	£79.36	46	£1,432.78	£1.03	8
Bray UDC	1	£745.30	£745.30	10	£745.30	n/a	1
Carlow Co cl	2	£385.84	£192.92	n/a	£252.09	£133.75	0
Cavan Co Cl	0	£0.00	£0.00	0	£0.00	£0.00	0
Clare Co Cl	110	£8,847.40	£80.43	6	£301.02	£10.12	11
Clonmel Corp.	48	£4,491.04	£93.56	9	£250.57	£20.72	9
Cork Co Cl	72	£13,551.54	£188.22	11	£1,975.40	£22.22	5
Cork Corp.	453	£21,859.51	£48.25	5	£429.69	£1.00	17
Donegal Co Cl	1002	£122,823.58	£122.58	19	£1,144.44	£1.21	18
Drogheda Corp.	0	£0.00	£0.00	0	£0.00	£0.00	0
Dublin Corp.	90	£3,358.39	£37.32	7	£249.54	£1	11
Dundalk UDC	500	£20,000.00	£40.00	n/a	£426.54	£10.00	14
Dunlaoghaire/ Rathdown	53	£2,236.98	£42.21	1	£359.00	£1.00	5
Fingal Co Cl	145	£6,662.89	£45.95	1	£289.29	£1.00	5
Galway Co Cl	6	£618.26	£103.04	0	£154.25	£65.14	0
Galway Corp.	0	£0.00	£0.00	0	£0.00	£0.00	0
Kerry Co cl	97	£8,516.64	£87.80	12	£623.70	£2.00	10
Kildare Co cl	379	£67,408.19	£177.86	14	£1,926.92	£6.08	11
Kilkenny Co Cl	15	£2,812.15	£187.48	4	£993.10	£17.00	2
Kilkenny Corp.	0	£0.00	£0.00	0	£0.00	£0.00	0
Laois Co Cl	0	£0.00	£0.00	0	£0.00	£0.00	0
Leitrim Co Cl	27	£3,576.80	£132.47	3	£554.72	£5.53	5
Limerick Co cl	234	£33,166.32	£141.74	22	£3,456.77	£1.00	7
Limerick Corp.	106	£5,205.32	£49.11	n/a	£200.00	£1	n/a
Longford Co Cl	139	£16,113.84	£115.93	18	£914.38	£5.03	n/a
Louth Co Cl	75	£13,247.23	£176.63	6	£1,045.84	£23.14	16
Mayo Co Cl	57	£9,509.85	£166.84	11	£440.91	£5.67	10
Meath Co Cl	217	£27,289.00	£125.76	14	£872.20	£20.01	16
Monaghan Co cl	0	£0.00	£0.00	0	£0.00	£0.00
Offaly Co Cl	0	£0.00	£0.00	0	£0.00	£0.00	0
Roscommon Co Cl	42	£4,937.28	£117.55	4	£397.72	£1.09	16
Sligo Co Cl	102	£10,732.00	£105.22	3	£448.98	£10.96	8
Sligo Corp.	9	£560.69	£62.30	1	£373.06	£9.16	7
South Dublin Co Cl	1134	£25,353.96	£22.36	16	£536.18	£0.01	6
Tipp (NR) Co Cl	16	£2,389.69	£149.36	2	£445.30	£40.00	2
Tipp (SR) Co Cl	245	£28,769.54	£117.43	10	£962.80	£6.00	7
Waterford Co Cl	252	£5,940.98	£23.58	3	£299.88	£1.00	8
Waterford Corp.	144	£17,162.85	£119.19	16	£700.05	£12.70	15
Westmeath Co Cl	392	£32,045.48	£81.75	12	£1,505.04	£10.00	11
Wexford Co Cl	80	£8,717.99	£108.97	7	£910.00	£20.00	4
Wexford Corp.	52	£4,782.67	£91.97	12	£465.01	£2.00	11
Wicklow Co Cl	41	£6,905.37	£168.42	16	£2,396.48	£0.08	2
TOTALS	6411	£546,597.25	£85.26

APPENDIX 2 - Summary Tables and Responses.

Response from each Local Authority

Athlone Urban District Council confirmed that, since April 1999, the following revised procedures are in place to ensure that there is no recurrence of ongoing credit balances:

Following redemption of a loan the borrower is requested to cease any standing order payments.
After a period of two (2) months all accounts are checked to ensure that payment has ceased and any credit balance is then refunded to the borrower. A regular check is carried out to ensure that any expired / run-out loans are not carrying credit balances.

Of the 75 cases identified below, 21 related to refunds of £100 or over.

Council	Number of cases	Total refunds	Ave. refund	Highest number of instalments overpaid (mths)	Highest refund	Lowest refund	Longest elapsed time before refund was made (years)
Athlone UDC	75	£5,872.68	£79.36	46	£1,432.78	£1.03	8 years

Bray Urban District Council has a system to ensure that overpayments on mature housing loans are prevented and that, if any overpayments occur, they are identified, promptly notified to the borrower and remedial action is taken. The system involves regular checking of the monthly ledger report in order to identify any overpayments which may have occurred. Borrowers are promptly notified once a loan has expired.

At the time of the commencement of this investigation there was a satisfactory system in place which ensured that as far as possible instalments overpaid were refunded within a relatively short period of time.

Council	Number of cases	Total refunds	Ave. refund	Highest no. of instalments overpaid (mths)	Highest refund	Lowest refund	Longest elapsed time before refund was made (years)
Bray UDC	1	£745.30	£745.30	10	£745.30	n/a	<1 year

Carlow County Council confirmed that a printout is produced on a monthly basis which identifies payments received in respect of run-out or redeemed loans. The overpayments result from borrowers failing to instruct their bank to cancel standing orders. Borrowers are requested to cancel standing orders when they redeem their housing loans but, on occasions they appear to neglect to do so.

At the time of the commencement of this investigation there was a satisfactory system in place which ensured that as far as possible any instalments overpaid were refunded within a relatively short period of time.

Both of the cases identified below involved refunds of £100 or more.

Council	Number of cases	Total refunds	Ave. refund	Highest no. of instalments overpaid (mths)	Highest refund	Lowest refund	Longest elapsed time before refund was made (years)
Carlow Co Cl	2	£385.84	£192.92	0	£252.09	£133.75	0

Cavan County Council reported that refunds are issued to all account holders as expeditiously as possible. The general procedure that operates is as follows:

Statements of standing orders are received from the bank and are batched on a daily basis in the Finance Section, then forwarded immediately to the Council's Information Technology Section for input to its computer system. Checks are in place to guarantee that totals or ordinary, part and full redemptions on each batch header agree with corresponding totals on the computerised printout.

The Council's computerised printout flags all repayments made subsequent to redemption of loans with the message "Account not Active / Unusual amount". These amounts are recorded and held in abeyance for three days pending cancellation of the standing order by the customer's bank. When this period elapses without cancellation, the refund is processed within the following month. The house loan system therefore provides an expedient fail safe mechanism whereby all overpayments are identified and refunded in the shortest possible time frame.

In cases where refunds on redeemed accounts apply, the Council notify the customer to cancel associated standing orders in their paying banks immediately. In order to further strengthen controls the Council adopted a procedure of notifying loan holders in writing of the requirement to cancel standing orders at the date of redemption of their loans. Those who fail to do so are again informed of the necessity to do so when the refund is being processed.

There are circumstances over which the Council has no control, such as, a customer's bank omitting to comply with all instructions to cancel a standing order, or, a customer forgetting to issue the appropriate instruction to his/her bank.

At the time of the commencement of this investigation there was a satisfactory system in place which ensured that, as far as possible, any instalments overpaid were refunded within a relatively short period.

For the purpose of my investigation I am satisfied that the Council has a nil return.

Council	Number of cases	Total refunds	Ave. refund	Highest no. of instalments overpaid (mths)	Highest refund	Lowest refund	Longest elapsed time before refund was made (years)
Cavan Co Cl	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Clare County Council reported that refunds are made to borrowers periodically. When borrowers request redemption figures, they are advised to stop direct debits / standing orders on redemption of the loan. Borrowers are also advised to stop direct debits / standing orders when the final payment is received by the Council. Some information is lost from the Council's Housing Loan Computer System once a loan is redeemed. Therefore, in order to access certain relevant information once a loan has been redeemed, the loan has to be manually checked using the original paper files and records.

Following its initial report to my Office the Council confirmed that an additional "run-out" loan with a revenue balance was discovered. It appears that the borrower in this case had continued to make payments by standing order. This loan was undetected due to a peculiarity with the Council's House Loans Computerised System. The Council informed me that this loan had "run -out" and did not appear on the Computerised Redeemed or Suspended Loan printouts. In order to avoid the recurrence of this issue, the Council has since included further fields in all loan printouts and will carry out periodic checks.

Of the 110 cases identified below, 36 involved refunds of £100 or more.

Council	Number of cases	Total refunds	Ave. refund	Highest no. of instalments overpaid (mths)	Highest refund	Lowest refund	Longest elapsed time before refund was made (years)
Clare Co Cl	110	£8,847.40	£80.43	6	£301.02	£10.12	11 years

Clonmel Corporation confirmed that some credits on mature housing loans arose because its borrowers neglected to cancel standing orders after redeeming their housing loan. The Corporation has refunded all outstanding credits. With effect from 1 January 1999, it issues written instructions to all persons who redeem their housing loans to cancel their standing orders immediately.

Of the 48 refunds identified below, 18 relate to refunds of £100 or more

Council	Number of cases	Total refunds	Ave. refund	Highest no. of instalments overpaid (mths)	Highest refund	Lowest refund	Longest elapsed time before refund was made (years)
Clonmel Corp.	48	£4,491.04	£93.56	9	£250.57	£20.72	9 years

Cork County Council confirmed that the making of refunds of overpayments in respect of fully redeemed house loans is an ongoing process in the Council. The Council made refunds in the normal course of events of between £44,000 and £67,000 to borrowers each year in the period 1996 to 1998. The majority of overpayments arise when borrowers pay off loans in full but fail to cancel bank standing orders in time, with the result that the instalment due for the month of redemption is paid by the borrower through their bank, while that monthly instalment is also paid at the date of redemption.

The Council's standard letter notifying redemption figures on loans advises borrowers to cancel standing orders as soon as the loan is redeemed. Similar advice is given to telephone callers. Despite this, a large number of people end up paying one or more monthly instalments after the loan has been fully redeemed. The banks will not take instructions from the Council to cancel a standing order which is authorised by a bank's customer. The Council must depend on borrowers to give correct instructions to their respective banks.

The Council deals with a large number of refunds throughout the year, but requests borrowers to make a brief informal written request in letter or note form, before issuing a refund.

Of the 72 cases identified below 42 were to the value of £100 or more.

Council	Number of cases	Total refunds	Ave. refund	Highest no. of instalments overpaid (mths)	Highest refund	Lowest refund	Longest elapsed time before refund was made (years)
Cork Co Cl	72	£13,551.54	£188.22	11	£1,975.40	£22.22	5 years

Cork Corporation advised that it has procedures in place to avoid overpayments on mature housing loans by way of monitoring at month end. The situation is monitored on a monthly basis and refunds are made as soon as possible thereafter.

Of the 453 cases identified below 61 involved refunds of £100 or more.

Council	Number of cases	Total refunds	Ave. refund	Highest no. of instalments overpaid (mths)	Highest refund	Lowest refund	Longest elapsed time before refund was made (years)
Cork Corp.	453	£21,859	£48.25	5	£429.69	<£1.00	17 years

Donegal County Council informed me that, in the past, it was a requirement of audit in the Council, to only issue refunds upon receipt of the written application from the borrowers for any credits due. In view of recent developments, arising from my investigation, the Council will dispense with that requirement. Credits accruing on any account as a result of loans maturing or being redeemed will be refunded immediately and borrowers will be advised to terminate their standing orders with their banks.

Of the 1,002 cases identified below 437 cases were to the value of £100 or more.

Council	Number of cases	Total refunds	Ave. refund	Highest no. of instalments overpaid (mths)	Highest refund	Lowest refund	Longest elapsed time before refund was made (years)
Donegal Co Cl	1,002	£122,823	£122.58	19	£1,144.44	£1.21	18 years

Drogheda Corporation indicated that in 1996 it was discovered that standing orders were still being paid even though the loan had run-out. Refunds were made and the borrowers involved were advised to cancel the standing order. Since then the Corporation generate a housing loan "credit report" each month so that if an overpayment is made when a loan is redeemed it is refunded the following month.

For the purpose of my investigation I am satisfied that the Corporation has a nil return.

Council	Number of cases	Total refunds	Ave. refund	Highest no. of instalments overpaid (mths)	Highest refund	Lowest refund	Longest elapsed time before refund was made (years)
Drogheda Corp.	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Dublin Corporation advised that it has a policy, when issuing a borrower with their housing loan redemption figure to advise them to cancel their standing order with the bank before discharging the loan. When loans are discharged a code is immediately placed on the borrower's account. This prohibits any further payments being updated to the account. The Corporation's computer system generates a report outlining all rejected payments and should a payment be received after a loan has been discharged the amount in question is refunded directly to the borrower.

Of the 90 cases identified below 7 were to the value of £100 or more.

Council	Number of cases	Total refunds	Ave. refund	Highest no. of instalments overpaid (mths)	Highest refund	Lowest refund	Longest elapsed time before refund was made (years)
Dublin Corp.	90	£3,358.39	£37.32	7	£249.954	<£1	11 years

Dundalk Urban District Council indicated that it has identified approximately 500 loan accounts to be investigated but, due to resource issues its investigation is taking longer than anticipated.

In the light of the current investigation the Council has reviewed its procedures for dealing with loan balances. The Council has confirmed that every loan that is redeemed / expired is checked and refunds are made as quickly as possible.

Council	Number of cases	Total refunds	Ave. refund	Highest no. of instalments overpaid (mths)	Highest refund	Lowest refund	Longest elapsed time before refund was made (years)
Dundalk UDC	500	£20,000 est.	£40	n/a	£426.54	<£10	14 years

Dunlaoghaire Rathdown County Council confirmed that a printout providing details of all accounts due to mature in the following six months is provided by the Council's Loans Computer System in each month. Borrowers are notified approximately 1 to 2 months before the expiry date of the month the final payment is due and advised to make arrangements to ensure that no further payments are made on the loan.

Immediately a loan matures, whether by payment of the final instalment at the expiry of the term of the loan or when a loan is redeemed early, a "stop" is, as a matter of course, placed on the account. This ensures that any further payments tendered in respect of the loan are receipted to the loans "overpayment" code.

When a "stop" is not placed on a redeemed account, due to an operative error by Council staff and overpayments are made between the date of redemption and the end of the calendar month when the redemption was made , such payments are credited to the account and give rise to a credit balance on the redeemed account. This is identified during the monthly loan ledger reconciliation and dealt with as a refund in the normal way.

Subsequent payments would be rejected by the receipting system and credited to the overpayment code.

Payments to the overpayments code are examined on a monthly basis and the borrower is notified in writing of the fact of the overpayment, requested to take action to prevent any further payments and invited to submit a written request for a refund. On receipt of such a request arrangements are made to have the refund issued without delay. It is standard procedure to make a payment only on foot of an invoice or other demand for payment in order to safeguard public funds.

Of the 53 cases identified 7 were for amounts greater than £ 100.

Council	Number of cases	Total refunds	Ave. refund	Highest no. of instalments overpaid (mths)	Highest refund	Lowest refund	Longest elapsed time before refund was made (years)
Dunlaoghaire / Rathdown Co Cl	53	£2,236.98	£42.21	1	£359	£1	5 years

Fingal County Council informed me that it has a system in place to anticipate the expiry of accounts. The Council say that the expiry may arise through accounts running the full term of their repayment period or it may arise earlier following special payments of capital by the borrower or through the borrower making excess payments over the monthly instalment on an ongoing basis.

The Council say that prior to the expiry date, borrowers are notified of the imminent expiry of their account, the capital sum required to redeem the account early and invited, if they desire, to pay this capital amount. If this offer is not availed of, the account will run to its logical expiry date. If, on this date, payment of the monthly instalment is up to date or in credit, the account is ceased.

The Council say that when an account is ceased it is literally taken out of the system so that any payments offered against that account will not find a matching account number and therefore it cannot be posted to an account. The Council confirm that such payments are returned to the borrower or, more commonly, the borrower's bank is asked to take back a credit for the overpayment. When the account is ceased, the borrower is written to and advised to apply to the Council's Law Agent for release of Title. Any overpayment existing on the account is, on the application of the borrower, refunded. An account may be terminated through the proactive action of the borrower in paying off capital outstanding at any stage. Any overpayment made on the account during these transactions are specifically notified to the borrower.

Of the 145 cases identified below 22 were for amounts greater than £100.

Council	Number of cases	Total refunds	Ave. refund	Highest no. of instalments overpaid (mths)	Highest refund	Lowest refund	Longest elapsed time before refund was made (years)
Fingal Co Cl	145	£6,662.89	£45.95	1	£289.29	<£1	5 years

Galway County Council explained that a weekly printout of "receipts" is produced by the Housing Loan Computer System. If a receipt is recorded against a redeemed loan, an "error" message appears on this printout. This error message is checked to see whether a refund is due. If it is due, a list is prepared and the Customer Account number is sourced from Accounts Section.

A printout of all loans which have been paid off are checked on a weekly basis. Any credit balances on "paid off" loans are queried . If it is established that a refund is due, a voucher is prepared with an accompanying letter informing the borrower of the necessity to cancel a standing order.

Of the 6 cases identified below 3 are for amounts greater than £100.

Council	Number of cases	Total refunds	Ave. refund	Highest no. of instalments overpaid (mths)	Highest refund	Lowest refund	Longest elapsed time before refund was made (years)
Galway Co Cl	6	£618.26	£103.04	0	£154.25	£65.14	0

Galway Corporation. The Corporation advises that it has arrangements in place to ensure that overpayments do not arise on mature / expired housing loans. Any loans which are due to expire are highlighted on a report produced from the Housing Loans Computer System on a monthly basis. A notification is then sent to each borrower informing them that the loan is about to expire, the balance on the loan and that the standing order should be stopped.

In the case of redemptions, the borrowers and / or their solicitors are reminded to cancel their standing orders. Should an overpayment occur, an error message is produced on their housing loans report at the end of the month. Arrangements are then made to refund the amount overpaid and a revenue adjustment is made to clear the account balance. Arrangements have been put in place recently to ensure that accounts are adjusted immediately when borrowers are refunded any outstanding credits on their accounts.

For the purpose of my investigation I am satisfied that the Corporation has a nil return.

Council	Number of cases	Total refunds	Ave. refund	Highest no. of instalments overpaid (mths)	Highest refund	Lowest refund	Longest elapsed time before refund was made (years)
Galway Corp.	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Kerry County Council provided me with one of the most comprehensive and helpful reports of this investigation. The Council pointed out that the total number of credits identified represents less than 5% of the overall number of accounts held and the particular accounts where refunds were due involved payments by standing order which were not cancelled by the borrowers in time.

The Council have told me that as a result of this investigation it proposes to take the following action:

• Loans which naturally mature and those which are redeemed early will be identified on a monthly basis. These loans will be tracked on a regular basis to ensure that any overpayments made are highlighted and refunded to the borrower immediately.

• It also proposes to take the matter up with the Local Government Computer Services Board, who designed the Computer Housing Loans System in operation in many local authorities, to ensure that the Council's system highlights loan accounts where payments are made and where such payments should be refunded due to the expiry or redemption of a loan.

In 32 cases the refund due was £100 or more.

Council	Number of cases	Total refunds	Ave. refund	Highest no. of instalments overpaid (mths)	Highest refund	Lowest refund	Longest elapsed time before refund was made (years)
Kerry Co Cl	97	£8,516.64	£87.80	12	£623.70	£2	10 years

Kildare County Council, which also produced a very good quality report to this investigation, said that of the 379 accounts identified refunds were issued in 262 cases. One hundred and four borrowers (104) were contacted by the Council but the notices were returned by the post office indicating that the borrowers were no longer at the address. A further 13 borrowers have yet to contact the Council.

Borrowers are advised, on redemption, to cancel any standing order immediately. In future the Council propose to examine all loans on a monthly basis and to issue refunds, if due, immediately.

Of the 379 accounts identified, 258 involved refunds of £100 or greater.

Council	Number of cases	Total refunds	Ave. refund	Highest no. of instalments overpaid (mths)	Highest refund	Lowest refund	Longest elapsed time before refund was made (years)
Kildare Co Cl	379	£67,408	£177.86	14	£1,926.92	£6.08	11 years

Kilkenny County Council reported that its Housing Loan System is updated on a monthly basis. It said that standing order payments are credited to the accounts within 10 days of the month following that to which they refer. Any credit balance on an account is checked on a monthly basis and if a refund is due, it is dealt with at that stage and the customer is notified to cancel the standing order.

Of the 15 refunds identified, 9 relate to refunds of £100 or more.

Council	Number of cases	Total refunds	Ave. refund	Highest no. of instalments overpaid (mths)	Highest refund	Lowest refund	Longest elapsed time before refund was made (years)
Kilkenny Co Cl	15	£2,812.15	£187.48	4	£993.10	£17	2 years

Kilkenny Corporation reported that its Housing Loan System is updated on a monthly basis with payments by standing order being credited to the individual account within two weeks of the month to which they refer.

If a loan is redeemed in the middle of a month the standing order payment is not updated at the date of redemption but any balance is shown on the account the following month and, if a refund is due, it is dealt with at that stage. In order to eliminate the need for refunds the Corporation tries to ensure that the redemption figure given to an account holder at the time of redemption is totally accurate. The Corporation say that the account holder is notified to cancel any standing order with their paying bank.

For the purpose of my investigation I am satisfied that the Corporation has a nil return.

Council	Number of cases	Total refunds	Ave. refund	Highest no. of instalments overpaid (mths)	Highest refund	Lowest refund	Longest elapsed time before refund was made (years)
Kilkenny Corp.	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Laois County Council indicted that, in February 1998, it had reviewed all loans which had expired or were redeemed. This was almost one year before I brought the matter to its attention. A total of 55 accounts were overpaid and refunds of £9,149.50 were made. The Council currently carries out a quarterly review of all loans redeemed/expired and refunds are made as they arise.

For the purpose of my investigation I am satisfied that the Council has a nil return.

Council	Number of cases	Total refunds	Ave. refund	Highest no. of instalments overpaid (mths)	Highest refund	Lowest refund	Longest elapsed time before refund was made (years)
Laois Co Cl	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Leitrim County Council informed me that, in future, subsequent to the redemption of a loan, the borrower or his/her solicitor will be advised that no further payments should be made on the loan. The Council say that each account will be reviewed on a regular basis and should any overpayments arise, refunds will be processed as soon as possible.

Of the 27 cases referred to, 17 are for amounts of £100 or more.

Council	Number of cases	Total refunds	Ave. refund	Highest no. of instalments overpaid (mths)	Highest refund	Lowest refund	Longest elapsed time before refund was made (years)
Leitrim Co Cl	27	£3,576.80	£132.47	3	£554.72	£5.53	5 years

Limerick County Council stated that it produces a report each month which gives details of the accounts which have been paid off / expired the previous month but in respect of which monies continue to be received. The borrower is advised to cease payments immediately and, in the case of a standing order, confirmation is sought from the borrower's bank that the standing order has been cancelled. When the Council is satisfied that all the necessary steps have been taken to prevent further credits occurring, a refund is made to the borrower.

Of the 234 cases referred to below, 107 relate to amounts of £100 or over.

Council	Number of cases	Total refunds	Ave. refund	Highest no. of instalments overpaid (mths)	Highest refund	Lowest refund	Longest elapsed time before refund was made (years)
Limerick Co Cl	234	£33,166.32	£141.74	22	£3,456.77	<£1	7 years

Limerick Corporation advised that some of the accounts identified may have been the subject of refunds in the past but it is almost impossible to be absolutely sure as the computer tapes on which the old data is held have conflicting densities with the current software. The Corporation say that the above credits arose because borrowers did not cancel their standing orders and no proper tracking procedure was in place to highlight run-out loans. The Corporation have since introduced revised procedures to highlight any overpayments and to make any refunds, where appropriate.

Of the 106 cases identified 12 involved refunds of £100 or more.

Council	Number of cases	Total refunds	Ave. refund	Highest no. of instalments overpaid (mths)	Highest refund	Lowest refund	Longest elapsed time before refund was made (years)
Limerick Corp.	106	£5,205	£49.11	n/a	£200	<£1	n/a

Longford County Council said it has introduced measures to ensure that overpayments do not arise in the future. Borrowers are notified to cancel any standing orders or wage deductions as appropriate following redemption of their loans. A periodic check is kept on accounts which may be in credit and the necessary arrangements are made to refund any amount as soon as possible but in any event before the end of the relevant financial year.

Of the 139 cases identified, 69 involved refunds of £100 or more.

Council	Number of cases	Total refunds	Ave. refund	Highest no. of instalments overpaid (mths)	Highest refund	Lowest refund	Longest elapsed time before refund was made (years)
Longford Co Cl	139	£16,113.84	£115.93	18	£914.38	£ 5.03	n/a

Louth County Council said that it is part of its procedures to advise borrowers to cancel a standing order when a loan is being redeemed. A follow-up check is carried out the following month to ensure that the standing order has been cancelled and it is now part of the Council's internal audit function to carry out periodic checks on all loan accounts.

Of the 75 cases identified, 51 involve refunds of £100 or more.

Council	Number of cases	Total refunds	Ave. refund	Highest no. of instalments overpaid (mths)	Highest refund	Lowest refund	Longest elapsed time before refund was made (years)
Louth Co Cl	75	£13,247	£176.63	6	£1,045.84	£23.14	16 years

Mayo County Council confirmed that it has revised its procedures, as follows:

When a loan is redeemed, the details are inputted to the Housing Loan Computer System and also recorded in the manual register. A computer printout is checked each month and in the case of clients who do not cancel standing orders, refunds are made. A computer printout is also checked each month in the case of mature loans and refunds made, as appropriate.

Of the 57 accounts identified, 48 involved refunds of £100 or more.

Council	Number of cases	Total refunds	Ave. refund	Highest no. of instalments overpaid (mths)	Highest refund	Lowest refund	Longest elapsed time before refund was made (years)
Mayo Co Cl	57	£9,509.85	£166.84	11	£440.91	£5.67	10 years

Meath County Council reported that it now has a procedure in place to check, on a monthly basis, any credit balances on redeemed and mature housing loans. The Council has confirmed that its computer system now produces, when requested, a Credit Listing which identifies all accounts which show a credit balance. This listing is now regularly checked for accounts where instalments are paid after the loan expiry date. The Council has engaged the services of a software printing company to produce the necessary statements which comply with Section 130 of the Consumer Credit Act, 1995.

Of the 217 accounts identified, 111 involved refunds of £100 or more.

Council	Number of cases	Total refunds	Ave. refund	Highest no. of instalments overpaid (mths)	Highest refund	Lowest refund	Longest elapsed time before refund was made (years)
Meath Co Cl	217	£27,289	£125.76	14	£872.20	£20.01	16 years

Monaghan County Council confirmed that it has a system in place whereby a borrower is advised to cancel, by letter, his /her standing order with the paying bank. If, by accident, a payment was made, the Council's end of month checking procedures would highlight the overpayment and the customer would be refunded immediately. At the end of every month the capital payoffs on loans are checked to establish any overpayments and if any are identified these are refunded immediately. The Council also says that a non-live report is printed at intervals. The purpose of this is to detect if any additional payments come through to an expired loan and if any overpayments are detected, they are refunded immediately.

For the purpose of my investigation I am satisfied that the Council has a nil return.

Council	Number of cases	Total refunds	Ave. refund	Highest no. of instalments overpaid (mths)	Highest refund	Lowest refund	Longest elapsed time before refund was made (years)
Monaghan Co Cl	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Offaly County Council confirmed that a monthly credit listing is checked every month to ascertain if there are any overpayments on mature and redeemed housing loans. There are occasions when payments are received in respect of such loans. This occurs when people forget to cancel their standing orders, even though, the Council say, the borrowers are notified, in advance, that the loan is about to expire and that no further payments are due. When overpayments are received the Council writes to the borrowers immediately, requesting them to cancel the standing order and, as soon as confirmation is received that this has been done, a refund is made.

For the purpose of my investigation I am satisfied that the Council has a nil return

Council

Number of cases

Total refunds

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