Complaints about housing adaptations for people with disabilities

This fact sheet is aimed primarily at people with disabilities (or someone caring for them) who are experiencing problems with adaptation to their home and may be considering making a complaint to the Ombudsman.

I have a problem with adaptations to my home to make it suitable for me. Can the Ombudsman help me?

• In many cases, yes. By law the council has duties and responsibilities to provide help to enable people with a wide range of disabilities to move in and out of their homes, to access and use living and sleepin areas, cooking, bathing, and toilet facilities within the home.
• This may involve the council's services for adults or children's services departments and the housing department, as well as other organisation such as a housing association, home improvement agency or voluntary organisation.
• Even if the council makes arrangements with other organisation to deliver the services, we will still investigate actions taken by them on behalf of the council.
• The Government has issued guidance to councils and health authorities about good practice in providing these services (see "other sources of information" below).
• The basic principles are a proper assessment of the needs of the person due to any disability, a decision about what adaptations are needed and how to provide them, and decisions about who should pay for them and how.

How do I complain?

• You should normally complain to the council first. Councils often have more than one stage in their complaints procedure and you will usually have to complete all stages before we will look at your complaint.
• Then, if you are unhappy with the outcome, or the council is taking too long to look into the matter - we think 12 weeks is reasonable - you can complain to us.
• But where the matter is urgent or you are particularly at risk, we can usually look into your complaint even if you have not been through the council's complaints procedure first. This could be, for example, if the adaptation you or a member of your family needs is so urgent that further delay could have serious consequences. You should explain this when you contact us.
• To complain to the Ombudsman phone our Advice Team on 0300 061 0614 (8.30am to 5.00pm, Mondays to Fridays). You will be able to discuss your complaint with one of our advisers. You can text us on 0762 480 3014.
• You can complete an online complaint form.

If you can consider my complaint what will the Ombudsman look for?

We consider whether the council has done something wrong in the way it went about dealing with your request for adaptations or help with them which has caused you problems. Some of the issues we can look at are whether the council:

• failed to give you information you should have
• failed to assess your need for adaptations
• failed to take into account some relevant information in an assessment
• delayed in dealing with your request for help
• failed to provide a service or adaptation which it had decided you need
• failed to tell you about a decision it had reached
• did not tell you how to challenge a decision if you disagree with it, or
• did not keep you informed, or failed to reply to letter, emails, and telephone calls.

What happens if the Ombudsman finds the council was at fault?

• It depends on what the fault was and what consequences it had for you. Sometimes things go wrong but do not affect the outcome. And sometimes the faults mean that someone has struggled on without proper access to the facilities in their home for longer than they should have done.
• Where we find fault with the council's procedure we will often ask the council to make changes so that the same problem does not occur again. Where the consequences of what happened have been quite significant, we can recommend that the council takes action to put the matter right.
• Sometimes, delay can make a situation worse, so we can ask the council to take some extra action which wouldn't have been needed if everything had been done properly in the first place.
• Sometimes it will be appropriate for the council to pay compensation for the distress its actions have caused, and for the impact of unreasonable delay. The amount we ask for would depend on exactly how you have been affected. We can also take account of whether here was any action you took which made the situation worse, or action you could have taken to improve matters.

Examples of some complaints we have considered

Other sources of information

• Delivering housing adaptations for disabled people, a good practice guide published in November 2004 and amended in June 2006, is available from the Department for Communities and Local Government at www.communities.gov.uk/publications/housing/deliveringhousingadaptations.

Our fact sheets give some general information about the most common type of complaints we receive but they cannot cover every situation. If you are not sure whether we can look into your complaint, please phone 0300 061 0614.

Date Updated: 11/01/12