London Borough of Bromley (19 010 935)

Statement Not upheld Homelessness 19-Aug-2020

Summary: The Ombudsman has seen no evidence of fault in how the Council dealt with Mr B’s housing situation, after he became homeless in August 2019.

London Borough of Ealing (19 017 027)

Statement Upheld Homelessness 18-Aug-2020

Summary: The Council failed to take sufficient action to promote Miss B’s son’s welfare when Miss B and her son were homeless and ‘sofa surfing’ for around two months, and when they were living in bed and breakfast accommodation for over a year. However, there was no fault in the way the Council decided its offer of ‘out of area’ interim accommodation was suitable, or its decision that it no longer had a duty to provide interim accommodation when Miss B rejected the offer. The Council has agreed to take action to ensure Miss B’s son is living in self-contained accommodation soon and to prevent similar failings in future.

London Borough of Newham (19 013 325)

Statement Upheld Homelessness 17-Aug-2020

Summary: Mr L complains about a council’s response to problems with the temporary housing a council placed him in. We do not uphold Mr L’s complaints about gas safety checks in his flat. However, there was fault because the Council provided an inaccurate complaint response and failed to carry out an assessment of noise from the flat above Mr L. This caused avoidable inconvenience. The Council will apologise and carry out an assessment of the noise under antisocial behaviour procedures.

Westminster City Council (20 002 045)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Homelessness 12-Aug-2020

Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr B’s complaint about his temporary accommodation. This is because it is late and there is insufficient justification for us to exercise discretion to investigate it now.

London Borough of Redbridge (19 003 389)

Statement Upheld Homelessness 11-Aug-2020

Summary: Mrs B complains the Council did not provide enough help after June 2017 when she reported disrepair in a private tenancy and after January 2018 when she became homeless. We uphold the complaint finding fault in the service Mrs B received from the Council’s private housing team and in interim accommodation the Council later provided to her. These faults caused Mrs B injustice as avoidable distress. At the end of this statement we set out how the Council has agreed to remedy this injustice.

London Borough of Merton (18 019 031)

Report Upheld Homelessness 07-Aug-2020

Summary: Mr X complains the Council placed him in temporary accommodation outside its area when he became homeless. Mr X says this meant he had to give up one of  his jobs as he was unable to travel back to the area for work.

Royal Borough of Greenwich (19 001 580)

Statement Upheld Homelessness 06-Aug-2020

Summary: Mrs X complained about the temporary accommodation the Council provided, the way the Council dealt with an offer of accommodation and a review request she made. She also complained the Council failed to give her the appropriate housing priority. Mrs X also stated the Council should not have imposed a communication plan, limiting her to email contacts. We found the Council was at fault for placing Mrs X and her family in hotel accommodation for a long period, and it should have warned her before imposing contact restrictions. However, there was either no fault or no injustice arising from the other elements of the complaint. The Council agreed to make a payment to Mrs X to recognise the impact of the Temporary Accommodation on her and her family.

London Borough of Brent (20 001 413)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Homelessness 04-Aug-2020

Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr B’s complaint about the Council’s decision he was intentionally homeless. This is because it was not unreasonable to expect him to use his review and appeal rights to challenge the Council’s decision.

London Borough of Enfield (20 001 101)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Homelessness 29-Jul-2020

Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mrs B’s complaint that the Council has failed to acknowledge it made an error in not adding her to a tenancy agreement and it delayed sending her a copy of its decision on her homelessness application. This is because we cannot investigate complaints about the Council’s management of its social housing and we would not have enough justification to recommend the remedy Mrs B is seeking.

London Borough of Newham (19 008 559)

Statement Upheld Homelessness 28-Jul-2020

Summary: there were significant faults in the way the Council handled Mr X’s homelessness application and made an offer of accommodation. The Council has agreed to provide a suitable remedy for Mr X’s injustice.