Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council (23 001 207)
Category : Housing > Allocations
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 12 Jun 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about Miss X’s housing application. The Council reached its decision properly.
The complaint
- Miss X complains about the Council’s handling of her housing application. She says this resulted in her application not having enough priority.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in the decision making, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Miss X.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
- I gave Miss X the opportunity to comment on my draft decision.
My assessment
- Miss X asked the Council to give her housing application more priority because she was pregnant and living with her parents in overcrowded circumstances. I understand Miss X had previously lived elsewhere before moving in with her parents.
- The Council’s housing allocations policy allows it not to give an applicant more priority if believes the applicant has knowingly worsened their circumstances. The Council said that applied in this case as Miss X would have known the situation when she decided to move into her parents’ home. Miss X says she did not create the overcrowding as the property was already overcrowded before she was pregnant. However, that does not undermine the Council’s judgement about what Miss X would reasonably have known and anticipated when moving in.
- The Council told Miss X it could reconsider her application’s priority after her baby’s birth. I do not fault that.
- The Council’s decision appears in line with its policy and what it understood of Miss X’s circumstances. Therefore, I consider the decision was properly reached so I cannot criticise it, although Miss X is entitled to disagree with the decision.
Final decision
- We shall not investigate this complaint. This is because the evidence suggests the Council reached its decision properly.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman