FAMILIES feared they could be evicted or face court appearances after a housing association demanded money it had already received.

A “glitch” meant residents received letters demanding hundreds of pounds before Christmas.

Tenants in Notting Hill Genesis properties were told they were in arrears after the housing association failed to credit housing benefit payments from Southend Council into their accounts.

A glitch meant the payments were not credited to tenants’ accounts.

Mr Migliorini, 64, of Ramsey Court, Southbourne Grove, Westcliff, was one of those caught up in the error.

He said: “Our housing benefit was being paid but not put into our accounts. Hundreds of people must have been affected. It started on December 13. I paid my part of the rent but a got a letter saying I owed them £600.

“At first Genesis said the was a problem in their department and they would deal with it but after three weeks it still hadn’t been rectified.

“I kept leaving messages for them but no one got back to me. It was very worrying for everyone. I’m quite a fit person but something like that is very stressful. We kept getting threatening letters

A Notting Hill Genesis spokesperson said: “Unfortunately, due to technical issues there was a delay in updating our systems with the December schedule of housing benefit payments, which meant those payments were added to the tenant rent accounts very late. By this time, automatically generated warning letters had been distributed.

“The issue has now been resolved and the residents’ accounts have been corrected. We apologise for any worry or inconvenience this may have caused and we are taking measures to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”

A Southend Council spokesperson, said: “We are pleased that Genesis have rectified the issue and all payments have now been sorted.”