Summary: The Council delayed assessing Miss B’s housing application and review request. The Council has backdated Miss B’s housing priority award date to make up for the delays. The Council has also agreed to apologise and make a symbolic payment to Miss B.

The complaint

1. Miss B complains that the Council delayed assessing her housing application and then wrongly decided she did not qualify to join the register. Miss B complains that the Council then delayed reviewing its decision. She says that she and her children have been living in poor housing conditions and they would have been able to move by now if there had been no fault by the Council.

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What I have and have not investigated

2. I have investigated Miss B’s complaints about her housing application. For the reasons explained in paragraph four, I have not investigated Miss B’s complaints about disrepair and a pest infestation. The Housing Ombudsman can investigate complaints about this.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. We cannot investigate complaints about the provision or management of social housing by a council acting as a registered social housing provider. (Local Government Act 1974, paragraph 5A schedule 5, as amended)
5. If we are satisfied with an organisation’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

6. I have:
• considered the complaint and the documents provided by the complainant;
• considered the documents the Council has provided; and
• given the Council and the complainant the opportunity to comment on my draft decision.

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What I found

The Council’s housing allocations schemes

7. The scheme introduced in January 2023 places applicants in a priority band from Band A (highest priority) to Band D (lowest priority). It says Band B will be awarded where the applicant is occupying insanitary or overcrowded housing or otherwise living in unsatisfactory housing conditions. Band B is also awarded to applicants needing to move on medical grounds.
8. The previous scheme placed applicants in a priority band from Band 1 (highest priority) to Band 4 (lowest priority). It awarded Band 2 for unsatisfactory accommodation. This included properties which were lacking facilities and there was no prospect of the conditions being remedied within a six-month time period.
9. The Council also awarded Band 2 where the applicant’s housing conditions directly contributed to causing serious ill health and the condition of the property could not be resolved within a reasonable period of time.
10. In both schemes, the award date is the date on which a higher priority band applied. It is used to prioritise between applications within the same band.

Overview

11. Miss B lives in a three-bedroom council owned flat with her four children. She applied to join the Council’s housing register in May 2021.
12. At the time, Miss B was taking legal action against the Council in relation to disrepair in the property. In June 2021, the Council pled guilty to allowing the state of Miss B’s property to be potentially dangerous to her household’s health. The Council was instructed to carry out repairs within eight weeks.
13. The Council assessed Miss B’s housing application in December 2021. It decided that she did not have a recognised housing need and therefore did not qualify to join the register.
14. Miss B requested a review of the decision. She said that she was living in insanitary conditions and she should get housing priority for this. Miss B also provided details of medical conditions which were affecting her and her children.
15. Miss B later provided medical evidence to support her view that her health was affected by her accommodation.
16. In January 2023, the Council decided to overturn its original decision and it awarded Band B on medical grounds. To make up for the delay in dealing with Miss B’s housing application and review, it backdated Miss B’s registration date to 23 June 2021, six weeks after she applied to join the Council’s housing register.

Analysis

17. We consider councils should assess housing applications in four to six weeks. Miss B submitted her housing application on 12 May 2021 and so it should have been assessed by 23 June 2021. The Council did not assess Miss B’s application until December 2021. This delay was fault.
18. Miss B requested a review of the Council’s decision that she did not qualify to join the register in December 2021. Government guidance says that eight weeks is a reasonable timescale for completing reviews. The Council did not complete the review until January 2023, over a year later. This delay was fault.
19. I have considered how Miss B was affected by these delays. If the Council had not delayed assessing Miss B’s application, and it had decided at that time that Miss B was living in unsatisfactory accommodation, or that the accommodation was affecting a member of the household’s health, it would have awarded Band 2 on 23 June 2021.
20. I have considered information on the Council’s website and I do not consider it likely that Miss B would have successfully bid on a property yet if she had been awarded Band 2 in June 2021 and had been regularly bidding since then. As the Council has backdated Miss B’s award date to 23 June 2021, she has the same housing priority which she would have had if there had been no delays by the Council.
21. While I do not consider Miss B has missed out on any properties due to the Council’s delays, or that the delays have affected her housing priority, I consider the Council’s delays dealing with Miss B’s application and review request would have caused her frustration and uncertainty.

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Agreed action

22. Within four weeks, the Council will:
• Apologise to Miss B for the delay in assessing her housing application and completing the review and for the frustration and uncertainty the matter caused her. It should be made in accordance with our guidance on apologies.
• Pay Miss B £200. This is a symbolic sum to recognise the frustration and uncertainty.
23. The Council has recently agreed to provide an updated action plan to show the action it is taking to reduce delays in processing housing applications and review requests.
24. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Final decision

25. I have completed my investigation and uphold Miss B’s complaint. There was fault by the Council which caused injustice to Miss B. The action the Council has agreed to take is sufficient to remedy that injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman