Summary: We will not investigate Miss B’s complaint about the Council’s assessment of her housing application. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify an investigation.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will refer to as Miss B, complains about the Council’s handling of her housing application. Miss B says the Council has wrongly assessed her housing need to be a three bedroom property. Miss B says she should be able to bid for four bedroom properties because it is not acceptable to expect her daughters, aged 2 and 14, to share a bedroom.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Miss B. I have considered the Council’s housing allocations scheme, which is available on the Council website.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. We will not find fault with a council’s assessment of a housing application if it has carried this out in line with its published housing allocations scheme.
6. The Council’s housing allocations scheme applies the bedroom standard to assess overcrowding. This is in line with what the government recommends.
7. The Council has assessed Miss B’s housing need to be a three bedroom property. This would provide a bedroom each for Miss B and her son, and one bedroom for Miss B’s two daughters to share.
8. Miss B says this is not acceptable. But, the Council’s assessment of Miss B’s housing need is in line with the Council’s housing allocations scheme.
9. This is because the scheme says a person aged 10-20 can share a bedroom with a child under the age of 10 of the same sex.
10. So, there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to justify an investigation.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Miss B’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman