Summary: There is no fault in the Council’s handling of Ms X’s application for a housing transfer.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains Westminster City Council (the Council) refused to let her go on the housing register and this caused her inconvenience and distress and a loss of opportunity to be rehoused.
2. Ms X also complains about the response to her raising issues about her neighbours’ dogs, youths and about poor windows.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We cannot investigate complaints about the provision or management of social housing by a council acting as a registered social housing provider. The Housing Ombudsman has the power to consider complaints about the management of social housing by a council. (Local Government Act 1974, paragraph 5A schedule 5, as amended.).
4. 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

5. I considered:
• Ms X’s complaint to us
• The Council’s response to her complaint
• Documents described later in this statement
6. Ms X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

7. Ms X has medical problems and wants to move because her housing affects her health.
8. The Council received a housing transfer form from Ms X at the end of April 2019. She described her health problems on the form. She also mentioned problems with poor quality windows, dogs on the estate and smoking in common areas. Ms X included a supporting statement with further details about her housing problems.
9. The Council acknowledged receipt of the form and then wrote to Ms X in the middle of May with a medical assessment form. The accompanying letter told Ms X to return the completed form within a week, or the Council would close her application. Ms X later said she did not receive the letter and form.
10. At the start of June, the Council sent Ms X a reminder letter to return the medical form within 7 days or her application would be closed. Ms X did not respond. She later said she did not receive the reminder letter.
11. Ms X complained to the Council at the end of October. She said she had heard nothing about her housing application since the end of April. The Council responded saying she had not returned the medical assessment form and so it had closed her application. The Council explained Ms X was not approved to go on the register as she was not in a priority group (the priority group includes people who need to move because their housing adversely affects their health). The letter advised Ms X to re-apply and included further forms.
12. Unhappy with the first response to her complaint, Ms X asked the Council for a second response. Ms X said she never received copies of the Council’s letters to her in May and June. She said she had been contacting the customer service team during this period, which said it had passed her emails to the housing solutions team, but she heard nothing further. Ms X said she would have responded if she had received the letters in May and June.
13. The Council’s second response said it did not know why Ms X did not receive the two letters, but copies were on the file and so it was satisfied the letters were posted. It did not uphold her complaint about the transfer application. (It did uphold a separate complaint about other issues, which I have not investigated for reasons explained at the end of this statement)

Was there fault?

14. Ms X says she never received the medical assessment form or the reminder letter. I have no reason to doubt her. Nor is there any reason to doubt the Council issued these letters as there are copies on the file. I cannot say what happened to the letters, but there is not enough evidence to find fault by the Council.
15. Ms X can reapply for a housing transfer at any point. The Council has correctly advised her to complete the transfer form and medical assessment form.

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Final decision

16. There is no fault in the Council’s handling of Ms X’s application for a housing transfer.
17. I have completed the investigation.

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Parts of the complaint that I did not investigate

18. I have not investigated issues to do with antisocial dogs and youths congregating and smoking in communal areas, or about windows as these are complaints about housing management and so are not within our remit. Ms X told us she has complained to the Housing Ombudsman.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman