A GRIEVING son has accused a housing association of insensitivity after they billed him for rent on his mother’s house in the days after she died.

Beryl Smith, 70, passed away after battling pneumonia, leaving the property she had rented on Liverpool Row, Vulcan Village, for 22 years unoccupied.

Her son Tony contacted the benefits agency to tell them and the allowance that covered for her rent was rightly stopped.

But before the grandmother’s funeral had even taken place landlords Regenda billed him £66 for rent on the property because Beryl’s keys had not been handed back to them.

Tony, 47, a minibus driver who lives in Ashton-in-Makerfield, told the Star: “I told them she had died they asked for money. I didn’t even have time to grieve, my head was in pieces.

“It is ridiculous to think we should have to get her things out of the house straight away, especially as she had lived there for 22 years.

“We were just waiting for the funeral to take a week later – the procession was leaving from the house.”

In a statement Steve Blackburn, head of customer and housing services at Regenda, offered sympathies to Beryl’s family before adding: “We understand that it can take time to make the necessary arrangements to hand back the property and as an organisation we try to be as accommodating as we can.

“All our tenants sign a tenancy agreement which states that they must give us four weeks’ notice before terminating their tenancy.

“When the tenancy comes to an end after the death of the tenant, we waive this notice period as a gesture of goodwill and the rent due is calculated only to the end of the week in which the keys are returned to us.

“In many cases we have a waiting list for our properties and there are many people, some currently homeless, in great need of housing.

“We strive, therefore, to strike a sensitive balance between making the property available for re-letting and respecting the circumstances of the bereaved family.”