Summary: Ms B complained about the Council’s actions and involvement when she rented her house to a homeless family arranged by the Council. She said the Council went back on the agreement and undertakings given when she rented the property. She considered the Council’s actions misled her as to its responsibilities to the family. She said that as a result she was not able to return to the property. She said she suffered considerable distress and disruption. There was fault by the Council which caused injustice to Ms B. The Council will apologise, make a payment to Ms B and undertake service improvements.

The complaint

1. I refer to the complainant as Ms B. She complained about the Council’s actions and involvement when she rented her house to a homeless family arranged by the Council. She said the Council went back on the agreement and undertakings given when she rented the property. She considered the Council’s actions misled her as to its responsibilities to the family. She said that as a result she was not able to return to the property. She said she suffered considerable distress and disruption.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused significant injustice, or that could cause injustice to others in the future we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
3. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered the complaint and documents provided by Ms B and spoke to her I asked the Council to comment on the complaint and provide information. I sent a draft of this statement to Ms B and the Council and considered their comments.

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What I found

5. At the end of 2020 Ms B rented a house she owned to a tenant. I refer to the tenant as Mr X. Mr X and his family were homeless and the tenancy was arranged with the involvement of the Council under its accommodation finding service.
6. There were problems during the first few months of the tenancy. Ms B told the Council the tenant had not paid the rent. Ms B did not want to continue with the tenancy both because of the behaviour of the tenant and because she wanted the property back to move into herself as her circumstances had changed. There was correspondence between Ms B and the Council about the situation.
7. After the first year the tenants did not move out and Ms B did not renew the tenancy agreement. This meant that it became a statutory periodic tenancy.
8. Correspondence continued between Ms B and the Council. Ms B was seeking support from the Council to find alternative accommodation for Mr X as she considered he would then move out. The Council did offer some accommodation but Mr X did not accept it. The correspondence also referred to Ms B serving notice on Mr X to leave the property. I understand that did happen but it was invalid so was ineffective. There was also correspondence about insurance cover (as part of the original arrangement to let the property to a homeless family) Ms B might be able to claim against.
9. By early 2023 Mr X and his family were still in the property. Ms B needed the property back as she had nowhere else to live. She complained to the Council. The Council’s responses state the problem was the insurance only lasted for one year and it lapsed because Ms B failed to ask for it to be renewed. It concluded it could do nothing more to help Ms B as Mr X was not homeless so it had no duties to him, or to her.

Analysis

10. Ms B considered the Council went back on undertakings and assurances given when she first embarked on renting her property. The key issue here is whether the Council gave Ms B accurate information and that it abided by the terms of the information it gave to her.
11. The Council describes the accommodation finding service as supporting landlords in the letting process. As part of the service the Council provides incentives to landlords who offer 12 month fixed term tenancies to those on the Council’s homeless and housing registers. The scheme enabled landlords to select from a range of assurances, such as landlord insurance, rental deposits, or rental guarantees. It said Ms B selected the deposit and rent in advance incentive offer.
12. The Council did not provide any evidence to show Ms B selected certain options from the incentives available. Ms B stated this was not the case and it was presented to her that it was a package that was available to her as a landlord – she did not have to choose particular options. This included insurance cover and the Council carrying out an inventory.
13. The only relevant document I have seen is an agreement between Ms B and Mr X. It is titled ‘Deposit and Rent Agreement’. It states the start and end dates are the same as the tenancy agreement and are 10 December 2020 to 9 January 2021. The same dates are given in the tenancy agreement. I assume this was an error as this was for one month and presumably should have read that it was to end on 9 December 2021. I do not know what this error would have meant for the legality of the agreements. But I it is not significant for my consideration of the complaint.
14. The key point is about insurance cover. Ms B believed the insurance cover provided meant she was protected in the event of the tenant not paying rent and legal protection cover if she needed to take legal action. The Council stated it did not arrange property insurance cover for the landlord (Ms B). The evidence does not support this statement. On 2 December 2020 the Council officer who was dealing with Ms B said “the insurance cover we provide is for assured shorthold tenancies for 12 months +”. In an email the next day the officer stated “I have attached the Council agreement and details about our insurance scheme. The insurance is currently being updated to include nil excess as opposed to 1 months excess, up to £2500 pcm rent protection cover and up to £25,000 legal protection cover.” In an email two weeks later the same officer stated “This insurance is provided to you at no additional cost as one of the benefits of your lettings facility through Help2rent”. The email went on that the insurance certificate and statement of fact were attached. All of this demonstrates the Council acted in securing the insurance cover in December 2020 and it was not arranged by Ms B acting on her own.
15. The problem arose here because the insurance cover was not renewed. As the Council had acted to arrange the cover it is likely that any renewal reminders would have gone to the Council and it failed to act. This was reflected in the Council’s initial responses when it became apparent in January 2022 that the cover had lapsed. There was no suggestion at this point that this was for Ms B to do.
16. In responding to us the Council accepted fault in its correspondence and complaint handling with Ms B. It accepted the responses were misleading with poor understanding of the facts. This failure to understand the facts of the situation was also in evidence in the Council’s correspondence with Ms B.
17. Where there has been fault we look to the Council to put the complainant back in the position they would have been in if the fault had not occurred. Here that would have meant the Council would either have renewed the policy or told Ms B it was due for renewal. In either case it would have meant Ms B had insurance cover in place and she could have claimed against that cover to assist her in gaining possession of the property. In response to a draft of this statement the Council made an offer of alternative housing to Mr X which he accepted. The property is now vacant.
18. The Council offered to pay Ms B £200. That is not an adequate remedy. Ms B had two years of not receiving clear, accurate information from the Council. That hampered her decision making and prolonged the issues.
19. Ms B has now been able to inspect the property and said there is significant damage and the tenant has left with arrears. The Council has stated that she will be able to claim the rent arrears back from the rent guarantee scheme. And it has agreed to make a payment to cover the costs of repairing the damage to the property.
20. The Council recognised it should improve the accommodation finding service literature and procedures. I refer to this below in my recommendations.

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Recommended action

21. The Council should;
• apologise to Ms B following our guidance on making an effective apology;
• pay her £500 which is a symbolic payment to recognise the impact the failings in the Council’s correspondence and complaint handling will have had on her situation;
• pay her £1500 in respect of the damage to the property;
• review the accommodation finding service literature, to ensure it details in full any incentive package, the duration of the incentives provided and how the incentive package will be confirmed. And to improve case management practices to ensure case documentation is accessible to the team and records are complete.
22. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions. For the first three bullet points should be completed within one month of the final decision statement and the last two within two months.

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Final decision

23. There was fault by the Council which caused injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman