Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint about the handling of the complainant’s housing register and homelessness applications. This is because the Council has already provided a fair remedy and because there were review rights the complainant could have used.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Ms X, complains about the way the Council handled her housing applications.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if we believe:

• the Council has already provided a fair remedy, or
• it would be reasonable for the person to ask for a council review or appeal.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I read the complaint and the Council’s responses. I invited Ms X to comment on a draft of this decision.

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What I found

Housing allocations policy

4. The policy says people can join the housing register if they have lived in the borough continuously for two years immediately prior to making the application.

What happened

5. Ms X lived continuously in the borough until 2016. She then moved out of the borough. She made a housing application in 2016 which was cancelled in 2017.
6. Ms X re-joined the housing register in 2018. She, and her child, moved back into the borough in 2018 to stay in her mother’s house. This was partly because she had experienced domestic violence. Ms X has to sleep in the living room due to a lack of space in her mother’s home. Ms X is still living with her mother.
7. Ms X made a homelessness application in early 2019. She told the Council her mother had asked her to leave. The Council interviewed Ms X. Ms X explained she did not want to live in temporary accommodation because she could not afford it and because she had had a bad experience of living in temporary accommodation in 2016. Temporary or emergency accommodation is housing a council can provide while it is considering a homelessness application.
8. As Ms X did not want to move to temporary accommodation the Council decided to add more points to her housing application. The plan was that she would stay in her mother’s house until she made a successful bid for accommodation from the housing register. The extra points would help her to do that. Ms X then complained to the Council about the points changing on her application.
9. The Council realised that Ms X was ineligible for the housing register, and the extra points, because when she re-applied in 2018 she had not been living continuously in the borough for two years. It removed her from the register which meant Ms X had no points. It told Ms X she could reapply once she could prove she had been living in the borough for two years. Ms X asked for this decision to be reviewed but the Council did not change the decision following the review. The Council awarded Ms X £400 for the errors in handling the housing application.
10. The Council gave advice about other housing options and said it might be able to provide financial help for Ms X to move into private rented accommodation. It advised her to go to the police about the domestic violence. The Council told Ms X that even if she re-joined the housing register she might never be offered a property or it might take many years.
11. In the meantime the Council closed the homelessness application in September because Ms X was still living in her mother’s home and it appeared she would remain there for at least six months. The Council told Ms X she had 21 days to ask for a review if she disagreed with the decision. Ms X did not ask for a review.
12. Ms X is dissatisfied with the response. She says she is at risk of domestic violence and her hopes were raised by having extra points added to the housing application. She has lived in the borough for most of her life and thinks she will become homeless.

Assessment

13. I will not investigate the outcome of the homelessness application because Ms X could have asked for a review if she disagreed with it. The Ombudsman expects people to use whatever review rights are available. If Ms X does become homeless she can make a new application to the Council. This may mean she has to accept emergency or temporary accommodation. As Ms X says she is still at risk of domestic violence, temporary accommodation would have been a way to move to a different location.
14. The Council made a mistake because it should not have allowed Ms X to join the housing register in 2018 and it should not have increased her points in 2019. The Council has offered £400 compensation which is a fair remedy. The mistake did not mean Ms X lost out on an offer of accommodation because she has declined temporary accommodation and she cannot be offered a home from the housing register until she meets the qualifying conditions. I have no power to ask the Council to admit Ms X to the housing register because that would be in breach of the policy.

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Final decision

15. I will not start am investigation because there were review rights Ms X could have used and because the Council has offered a fair remedy.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman