Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint about the outcome of the complainant’s homelessness application. This is because it is not unreasonable to have expected the complainant to have used her statutory right to review and appeal the Council’s homelessness decision.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Ms X, has complained about the Council’s decision to refuse her homelessness application. She says the Council did not properly consider her circumstances and based its decision on incorrect assumptions. She believes it should reassess her application.

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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 or continue with an investigation if we believe it would have been 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 have considered Ms X’s complaint and the correspondence from the Council. I invited Ms X to comment on a draft of this decision. I have considered the comments received in response.

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What I found

4. Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996 and the Homelessness Code of Guidance for Local Authorities set out councils’ powers and duties to people who are homeless or threatened with homelessness. If a council has ‘reason to believe’ someone may be homeless or threatened with homelessness, it must take a homelessness application and make inquiries. The threshold for taking an application is low.
5. If a council is satisfied someone is eligible, homeless, in priority need and unintentionally homeless it will owe them the main homelessness duty. If a person disagrees with the outcome of their homelessness application there is a statutory right to a review under section 202 of the Housing Act 1996.

What happened

6. Ms X had been living in another council’s area but needed to move out of the property where she lived with her children as the damp conditions were affecting her children’s health. Ms X moved into her mother’s home and made a homelessness application to the Council. Ms X moved into interim accommodation while her application was assessed.
7. In May 2019, the Council wrote to Ms X and refused her homelessness application as it said she was intentionally homeless. Ms X is unhappy with this decision and has complained the Council did not properly consider her circumstances before deciding the application. Ms X says the Council did not base its decision on the facts and instead made incorrect assumptions about her. Ms X says the Council should reconsider her homelessness application and allow her to remain in interim accommodation while it does.

Assessment

8. I will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the outcome of her homelessness application. This is because I would expect Ms X to have used the review and appeal rights provided by the law if she disagreed with the Council’s homelessness decision.
9. The Council decided it did not owe Ms X a homelessness duty as it said she is intentionally homeless. Ms X disagrees and argues the Council did not properly consider her application or the reasons why she had to leave her home.
10. If someone disagrees with the outcome of their homelessness application and dispute that they are intentionally homeless, they have a statutory right to request a review. If, following the review, they remain unhappy they can exercise their right to appeal to the county court. The Ombudsman would normally expect someone to use their review rights and will not normally investigate a complaint where there is a right to a review and appeal. Ms X started the process for a review. However, she did not pursue this as she was told she needed to leave the interim accommodation where she was living with her family and had to find alternative accommodation. While I understand Ms X’s priority was to find suitable accommodation, I consider that it was still reasonable to expect her to seek a review if she disagreed with the Council’s decision as this is the process the law provides for people that wish to challenge homelessness decisions. The Ombudsman also does not have the power to overturn the Council’s homelessness decision.

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Final decision

11. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because Ms X had separate review and appeal rights to challenge the Council’s homelessness decision.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman