Ombudsman criticises Council over rehousing of woman who fled domestic violence

Archived press release

Date Published: 31/03/09

Medway Council mishandled the housing application of a woman who had fled domestic violence in another borough.

Medway Council mishandled the housing application of a woman who had fled domestic violence in another borough, finds Local Government Ombudsman, Tony Redmond. In his report, issued today (31 March 2009) he welcomes the fact that the Council is introducing a new allocation scheme, as it has been in breach of its statutory duty. He also asks it to pay compensation to the woman for its errors in handling her housing application.

‘Miss James’ (not her real name for legal reasons) became homeless when she left her home following domestic violence from her ex-partner, and moved to Medway, where she has family, and found a place in a women’s refuge. She complained that the Council failed to deal properly with her application for housing.

The Ombudsman finds that the Council has failed to maintain a full allocation scheme since September 2002 and is therefore in breach of its statutory duty. It has been allocating accommodation on the basis of an undocumented system of ‘sub bands’. The Council accepts these are complex and difficult to understand and that it has, therefore, not been allocating accommodation in line with its published scheme.

The Ombudsman says: “In the absence of any documentation to support the verbal explanation of how the sub-bands operate, it seems unlikely that the sub-bands have been applied consistently. This raises the distinct possibility that people have not been treated equitably. But who, or even how many, it is not possible to say.”

The Council failed to maintain proper records of contact with Miss James’s support workers at the women’s refuge and failed to reply to correspondence from the refuge and the Citizens Advice Bureau. The Council offered Miss James temporary accommodation and subsequently discharged its duty when this was refused, although it appears that Miss James had been advised that she would be allowed to stay at the refuge while bidding for permanent accommodation. The Council also failed to advise Miss James of her statutory review rights before discharging its duty towards her. Further errors were made with Miss James’s priority, but these were later corrected.

The Ombudsman recommends that the Council should:

• withdraw the decision to discharge its duty to Miss James and reinstate her position as a homeless applicant when implementing its new allocations scheme;
• pay her £500 in compensation;
• make sure that in future it complies with its statutory duties by maintaining a full allocation scheme and by not introducing undocumented changes that mean it is not allocating accommodation in accordance with its published scheme;
• review its procedures, including its standard letters, for advising homeless applicants of their statutory review/appeal rights with a view to ensuring that they are advised of them at the appropriate stage; and
• take steps to ensure that records are kept of all communications with applicants and their representatives, and that written communications are responded to.
   

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