Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint about the Council accepting the complainant’s housing application in error. This is because the Council has provided a fair response and the Ombudsman cannot achieve the outcome the complainant wants.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Ms X, wants the Council to re-admit her to the housing register after it wrongly accepted her application, and then closed it.

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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 provided a fair response; or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

(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 considered the housing allocation policy. I invited Ms X to comment on a draft of this decision.

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What I found

Housing allocation policy

4. The policy says people can only join the housing register if they live or work in the Council area, or if they have a close relative who has lived in the area continuously for five years.

What happened

5. Ms X lives within a different council area. She is on the housing register with that council. She wants to move because she has experienced domestic violence.
6. In early 2019 Ms X applied to the join the South Gloucester housing register. She does not work in the area. She explained her sister has lived in the area for two years. The Council accepted the application.
7. In June the Council reviewed the application and realised it had accepted the application in error. It closed the application. It told Ms X she was ineligible for the housing register because she does not live or work in the area and her sister has not lived in the area for five years. It apologised for its error. It said that parts of Ms X’s postcode fall within the Council area and staff had assumed, without checking, that Ms X lived in the area. The Council has reminded staff of the importance of checking every application to see if the person lives in the area. The Council said it could not re-open the application because Ms X does not meet the qualifying conditions. It also said that the council area where Ms X lives is large enough for her to be able to move away from her former partner.
8. Ms X is dissatisfied with the reply. She feels disappointed and thinks she would move more quickly with this Council rather than her home council. Ms X wants the Council to re-admit her to the housing register.

Assessment

9. I will not start an investigation because the Council has provided an appropriate response and I cannot achieve the outcome Ms X would like.
10. The Council made an error. It should have assessed Ms X’s application correctly and rejected it in January. However, since the Council became aware of its error it has apologised, explained what went wrong and explained why it cannot allow Ms X to re-join the register. It has also taken steps to prevent staff making the same mistake again.
11. This was an appropriate response and an investigation is unlikely to lead to a different outcome. This is because Ms X is ineligible to join the register because she does not live or work in the area and her sister has not lived there for five years. I cannot ask the Council to re-admit Ms X to the register because that would be in breach of the policy.
12. The Ombudsman tries to put people back in the position they would have been in if the Council had not made a mistake. In this case, Ms X should never have been admitted to the register and she is now in the position she would have been in if the mistake had not been made.

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Final decision

13. I will not start an investigation because the Council has provided a fair response and I cannot achieve the outcome Ms X would like.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman