Complaints about possessions in council storage
This fact sheet is aimed primarily at people who have experienced problems with the way the council has looked after their possessions while dealing with their homelessness application and may be considering making a complaint to the Ombudsman.
The council did not look after my possessions properly when it accepted me as homeless. Can the Ombudsman help me?
- In many cases, yes. If the council has decided that it has a duty to provide accommodation for you because you are homeless or while it is considering your homelessness application, then it may also have a duty to take reasonable steps to protect your belongings. This usually means putting your personal property, such as furniture and clothes, into storage where you have not been able to make any other arrangements to do so.
- The council's responsibility ends when it considers that your belongings are no longer at risk because you are able to protect them yourself. It must then write to you at your last known address to tell you its decision and the reasons why. The council can make reasonable charges for storing your belongings and can dispose of them if it decides that its duty to protect them has ended but it has been unable to trace you.
- Before deciding whether to investigate your complaint, the Ombudsman has to consider whether you can and should take legal action against the council instead. If your property has been damaged while in storage arranged by the council the Ombudsman may think it reasonable to expect you to make a claim for damages in the county court. If you have already started court proceedings the Ombudsman will not be able to investigate your complaint.
- So If you think the council has not taken proper care of your property it would be a good idea to seek advice first from a solicitor or an advice agency, such as a Citizens Advice Bureau or Law Centre.
How do I complain?
- Unless the situation is urgent, you should normally complain to the council first. Councils often have more than one stage in their complaints procedure and you will normally 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.
- If the situation is urgent, or you are particularly vulnerable or at risk, for example because you have lost essential items, we may be able to look at your complaint straightaway even if you have not been through the council’s complaints procedure.
- You should normally make your complaint to us within 12 months of realising that the council has done something wrong.
- To complain to the Ombudsman phone our Advice Team on 0300 061 0614 or 0845 602 1983 (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 4299.
- You can complete an online complaint form at www.lgo.org.uk/making-a-complaint, or you can email us at advice@lgo.org.uk.
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 has carried out its responsibilities that has caused problems for you. Some of the issues we can look at are if the council has:
- disposed of your belongings without considering properly whether they were still at risk of loss or damage;
- failed to notify you when it decides it no longer has a responsibility for storing your possessions;
- failed to take reasonable steps to trace you to tell you its decision; or
- failed to take reasonable care of your property where it has arranged for it to be stored.
What happens if the Ombudsman finds that the council was at fault?
- It depends how you have been affected by what has gone wrong. If we find that the council has disposed of your belongings wrongly or they have been lost or damaged directly as a result of fault by the council we may ask the council to pay you compensation.
- The amount we ask for would depend partly on what evidence there is of the value of the goods.
- We can also take account of whether there was any action you took which made the situation worse, or action you could have taken to prevent the problem occurring.
- We may also ask the council to review its procedures for dealing with storage and disposal of property so that the problems you experienced don't happen to other people.
Examples of some complaints we have considered
The council stored Mr X's possessions, which he valued at £5,000, while it considered his homelessness application. He then lost touch with the council. In the meantime the council decided that it had no duty to accommodate him. The council tried to contact him to ask him to collect his possessions, but had lost his file and so could not find the address of any family members. The council disposed of his possessions. The Ombudsman found that both the council and the complainant were partly to blame. The council was wrong to lose the file, but Mr X did not keep the council informed of his whereabouts. We asked the council to pay Mr X £500 compensation.
The council placed Mr Y and his daughter in bed and breakfast accommodation while it considered their homelessness application. It arranged for their belongings to be put into storage. Five months later the council decided it did not have a duty to accommodate Mr Y. The council then told him that, as its duty to accommodate him had ended, it was no longer required to look after his belongings. After contacting Mr Y the council arranged for the belongings to be disposed of.
The Ombudsman found that the council was wrong to tell Mr Y that once its housing duty to him had ended, it was no longer responsible for looking after his possessions. The duty to look after possessions continues until the council considers they are no longer at risk of loss or damage, even if its housing duty has ended. In this case, Mr Y said he was still homeless and had nowhere to store his belongings. We asked the council to pay him £6,000 compensation and review its procedures.
Other sources of information
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.
The Local Government Ombudsmen provide a free, independent and impartial service. We consider complaints about the administrative actions of councils and some other authorities. We cannot question what a council has done simply because someone does not agree with it. If we find something has gone wrong, such as poor service, service failure, delay or bad advice and that a person has suffered as a result the Ombudsmen aim to get it put right by recommending a suitable remedy.
Date Updated: 22/01/10