Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision not to let the complainant re-join the housing register. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault and injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Mrs X, complains the Council will not let her join the housing register. The Council helped her to find a home in a different borough and Mrs X says she did not know this would mean she could not re-join the housing register. Mrs X wants the Council to let her join the housing register.

Back to top

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:

• it is unlikely we would find fault, or
• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

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

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

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

Back to top

What I found

Housing allocation policy

4. The policy says people can join the housing register if they have been resident in the borough for the last five years.

What happened

5. Mrs X joined the housing register in 2016. She then became homeless and the Council accepted a duty to provide her with accommodation.
6. In March 2018 the Council helped Mrs X to secure a privately rented home in a different borough. The Council discharged its homelessness duty to Mrs X because she accepted the offer. If Mrs X had refused the offer it is likely the Council would have discharged its duty without providing Mrs X with accommodation. This is because the Council is only required to make an offer of suitable accommodation. If someone rejects such an offer the Council is not required to offer further help. If this had happened Mrs X would have had to find her own home.
7. In 2020 Mrs X applied to join to re-join the housing register. She explained she still has many links to the borough including schools, work and doctors. The Council rejected the application because Mrs X has not lived in the borough for the last five years.
8. Mrs X disagrees with the Council’s decision. She says she did not know she would lose the right to be on the register. She wants social housing in the borough she has so many links to.

Assessment

9. I will not start an investigation because there is insufficient evidence of fault and injustice.
10. Mrs X’s housing application ended in 2018 because she acquired new accommodation. When she applied to join the register in 2020 she had not been living in the Council area for the last five years so the Council’s decision to reject the application was consistent with the policy. The policy does not say people who do not live in the borough can join if they have links through work, school or doctors.
11. Mrs X says she did not know she would lose her right to join the register if she left the borough. However, if she had known, and decided not to take the property for that reason, then it is most likely that the Council would have discharged its duty and not helped Mrs X to find a home. Mrs X would then have had to find her own accommodation which would probably have been difficult. On balance, it seems likely Mrs X would have accepted the flat even if she had been fully aware it would she could not access the housing register.

Back to top

Final decision

12. I will not start an investigation because there is insufficient evidence of fault and injustice.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman