London Borough of Lambeth (19 014 439)

Statement Upheld Allocations 11-Nov-2020

Summary: Miss X complains about the way the Council handled her application for emergency rehousing after she fled her home due to domestic violence. Miss X and her children suffered injustice due to fault by the Council and its failure to consider making a direct offer of accommodation. The Council has accepted our recommendations for a suitable remedy.

Birmingham City Council (20 003 360)

Statement Upheld Allocations 06-Nov-2020

Summary: A housing applicant complained that the Council had unreasonably suspended her from bidding for accommodation on the basis she had refused two property offers. But the Ombudsman does not have reason to start an investigation of this matter. This is because the Council has now retracted its bidding suspension in the woman’s case and is allowing her a further offer.

London Borough of Haringey (20 005 009)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Allocations 06-Nov-2020

Summary: On the information available, my view is that the Ombudsman should not investigate Mr X’s complaint that the Council has wrongly assessed his priority for its social housing register. This is because we would be unlikely to find fault and any injustice caused by the Council’s delay is not significant enough to justify an investigation.

London Borough of Barking & Dagenham (20 005 554)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Allocations 05-Nov-2020

Summary: Ms X complains about the Council’s handling of two bids for properties she made in 2015. The Ombudsman will not investigate the complaint because it is a late complaint and so falls outside our jurisdiction as the events happened too far in the past to be investigated now.

St Albans City Council (19 012 255)

Statement Upheld Allocations 05-Nov-2020

Summary: Mr X complains that he missed out on bidding for properties for about 11 weeks after the Council withdrew an offer of housing. It was fault for the Council to advertise the property as two-bedrooms when in fact it was a three-bedroom property, but it was entitled to withdraw the offer. Due to a change in computer systems, the Council is unable to provide detailed information about what happened in the period so Mr X is left not knowing if he would have been offered another property. As a result of this further fault, the Council should now offer Mr X the next available two bedroom house.

Westminster City Council (19 019 045)

Statement Not upheld Allocations 04-Nov-2020

Summary: There is no fault in the Council’s handling of Ms X’s application for a housing transfer.

Harlow District Council (20 004 562)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Allocations 02-Nov-2020

Summary: Miss X complained about the Council’s assessment of her housing application. The Ombudsman should not investigate this complaint. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.

London Borough of Camden (19 018 506)

Statement Upheld Allocations 30-Oct-2020

Summary: The Council is at fault as it did not deal with Ms X’s request for medical points for her housing application in December 2018. The Council is currently reviewing its decision on Ms X’s medical application so it should consider an appropriate remedy for Ms X if it awards medical points following its review. There is no evidence of fault in how the Council made direct offers of properties to Ms X.

London Borough of Croydon (19 006 454)

Statement Upheld Allocations 30-Oct-2020

Summary: The Council acted with fault in its response to Miss X’s complaint on needing to move home due to risk of domestic violence. It apologised and provided Miss X with a financial remedy to acknowledge its delays. It also improved its services to allow Council staff access to housing records to reduce the risk of perpetrators being accommodated near domestic violence survivors. The Council provided an adequate remedy before the Ombudsman investigated.

Gloucester City Council (19 012 543)

Statement Upheld Allocations 30-Oct-2020

Summary: The complainant, Miss Y, says the Council delayed in re-housing her despite having an urgent medical and welfare need. The Ombudsman finds fault with the Council because it took too long to review Miss Y’s application when she submitted notice of a change of circumstance. However, we are satisfied based on the information seen, Miss Y did not lose the opportunity to be re-housed during the period of delay. The fault did cause some injustice, in the form of time and trouble, which the Council will apologise for and make a payment of £200 to Miss Y.