Summary: there was no fault in the way the Council informed Mr X about decisions about his Housing Register application and his ability to bid for properties through the choice based lettings scheme.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains that the Council:
• did not tell him when it accepted his application to join the Housing Register that he had to bid for properties advertised on the choice-based lettings scheme;
• did not inform him in writing when it suspended him from bidding for properties due to arrears of charges for his temporary accommodation;
• only lets him contact one named Council officer if he wants to request a service or make a complaint. He says this officer refuses to transfer his calls and tells him he cannot contact other council services.

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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. If we are satisfied with a council’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I discussed the complaint with Mr X. I considered the Council’s response to my enquiries and some of its correspondence with Mr X. I also considered the Council’s replies to Mr X’s complaint and the relevant parts of its housing allocations policy.
4. Mr X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered their comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

5. Mr X is a single homeless man. The Council owes him the main housing duty and placed him in temporary accommodation some years ago. Mr X moved to his current temporary accommodation – a room in a shared house - in late June 2016.
6. Mr X is disabled. He has nerve damage which affects the use of his right arm and fingers. He told me he can send short text messages on his phone but he cannot compose long emails or letters. He has no difficulties with reading emails and letters but cannot send a detailed written response. He therefore finds telephone contact much easier.
7. Mr X told me he continued to take strong pain relief medication following surgery some years ago until January 2020. He says the medication affected his ability to deal with correspondence. He sometimes asked his carers to help him.
8. Mr X says he telephoned the Council to ask it to make reasonable adjustments to the way it provided services due to his disabilities. He believes he first made this request in a call to Adult Social Care service. He could not provide any further details about when he made the request or identify the officer he contacted.

Enfield Council’s choice-based lettings scheme

9. Enfield Council operates a choice-based lettings scheme to allocate most vacant Council and Housing Association properties in the borough. The scheme is called Home Connections.
10. Applicants on the Housing Register can make up to three bids each week for suitable properties advertised on the Home Connections website. Each applicant receives a unique user ID and password which they must use when they set up their account and make bids. They can either make bids on the Home Connections website or by calling a dedicated telephone line.
11. Applicants who find it difficult to make bids online or by telephone can ask for support from Council officers.

Mr X’s Housing Register application – information about how to bid

12. I have seen a copy of a letter the housing assessment and allocations team sent to Mr X on 1 September 2016. The letter is headed “Part 2”. It said the Council had accepted Mr X’s application to join the Housing Register. He was in priority group 4 (the group for accepted homeless households) with 200 points.
13. The letter explained Mr X could start to bid for Council and Housing Association properties on the Home Connections site. It included his unique user ID and a temporary password. There was a link to the Home Connections website where there is a more detailed guide about the bidding process.
14. This letter had a different address from Mr X’s temporary accommodation address. But it was created on the same day as another letter, headed “Part 1”. The Part 1 letter was correctly addressed and explained recent changes to the Council’s housing allocations scheme. The Council has said both letters were sent together to Mr X’s temporary accommodation address.

The suspension of Mr X’s application

15. The Council’s published housing allocations scheme says it may reduce an applicant’s priority to zero if they are a tenant with rent arrears,or owe more than eight weeks’ accommodation charges and have not maintained a repayment agreement for six months.
16. The scheme says the term “tenants” includes applicants in temporary accommodation provided by a council under a homelessness duty. It also says “weekly accommodation charge” means any payment the applicant is liable to make for their accommodation (including water rates and service charges).
17. Mr X’s Housing Benefit covers the rent element of his weekly accommodation charge. But the water, sewerage, and amenity charges – £14.88 per week – are not eligible for Housing Benefit. So Mr X is expected to pay these charges from his other income.
18. The Council says that, despite sending several reminders, Mr X has never paid these charges since June 2016. By November 2019 the arrears had reached £2,456.
19. In late October 2017 Mr X made a complaint to the Council about the fact that he had not yet been allocated a Council property and could not bid for properties. The Council replied by email. It explained to Mr X that he was suspended from bidding due to the arrears with the accommodation charges. It referred to a forthcoming meeting between Mr X and an income recovery officer in early November. It said if he made a suitable arrangement to clear the arrears, the Council would then consider reactivating his Home Connections account.
20. The issue of whether Mr X may need support to make bids is not relevant while his account is suspended. If Mr X clears the arrears and his application is reactivated, he can ask for support then if he cannot use the Home Connections website or telephone line to make bids.

Mr X’s contact with Council officers

21. Mr X says he was told by an officer in the Income team who is dealing with the arrears that he can only contact her. He says she refuses to transfer his calls and prevents him from speaking to other officers.
22. The Council says it has not imposed any contact restrictions on Mr X. The officer in the Income team is responsible for dealing with Mr X’s temporary accommodation charges and arrears. But Mr X is free to contact other Council officers if he wishes to make a complaint or request another council service.
23. The Council says Mr X was previously wrongly informed by the customer services and complaints team that he could not make complaints over the telephone. But in January 2020 the Complaints Manager wrote to Mr X to apologise for this error. She said she had reminded officers they could provide this service to the public as a reasonable adjustment when necessary.

My analysis

Information about how to bid on Home Connections

24. On the balance of probabilities, it is likely the Part 2 letter was enclosed with the Part 1 letter and sent to Mr X’s temporary accommodation on 1 September 2016. It informed Mr X he had been accepted on the Housing Register. It also explained how to log on to the Home Connections website and bid for properties. I find the Council did inform Mr X in writing.
25. I have also taken into account that when Mr X complained to the Council in October 2017, he referred to bidding. This supports my view that he knew then that he needed to bid for properties on the Home Connections scheme.

Suspension from bidding

26. The published housing allocations scheme allows the Council to reduce an applicant’s priority to zero when there are significant rent arrears or arrears of other accommodation charges.
27. The Council sent Mr X an email in late October 2017 explaining it had suspended his account on Home Connections because of significant arrears on his temporary accommodation account. I therefore find no fault because Mr X was informed in writing of the decision and the reasons for it.

Contact with Council officers

28. The Council says it has not imposed any contact restrictions on Mr X. He has a designated officer in the income recovery team who deals with his temporary accommodation account and arrears. Mr X can still contact other council services if he needs to make enquiries or request a different service.
29. The Council is aware it has a legal duty to make reasonable adjustments to the way it provides services where necessary to ensure a disabled person is not disadvantaged. Mr X can telephone the complaints team if he wishes to make a complaint. So I cannot see that the Ombudsman can achieve any more for Mr X or add to the findings from the Council’s investigation of his complaint.

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Final decision

30. I have completed the investigation and found no evidence of fault.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman