Summary: Mrs X complained about how the Council considered her complaint about the suitability of her temporary accommodation and responded to her complaint about the matter. The Council delayed in considering the suitability of Mrs X’s temporary accommodation and did not respond to her complaint properly. The Council will apologise, pay Mrs X £1000 to recognise the injustice caused to her and complete a suitability review of her temporary accommodation.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained about the way the Council considered her temporary accommodation and priority needs. Specifically Mrs X complained:
1. the Council did not properly consider her medical condition when it decided her priority for a Council property;
2. the condition of the temporary accommodation she currently lives in is unsuitable and making her health conditions worse;
3. there are no suitable properties available for her to bid on through the Council’s allocation scheme; and
4. the Council has delayed in responding to her complaints on the matter.
2. Mrs X said this impacted her health and the wellbeing of the whole family. Mrs X wants the Council to allocate her appropriate permanent housing.

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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 significant injustice, or that could cause injustice to others in the future we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
5. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

6. 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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What I have and have not investigated

7. I have not investigated part a) of Mrs X’s complaint. This is because Mrs X appealed the Council’s decision after it completed an assessment of the family’s medical needs in September 2021, and the Council provided its appeal response in April 2022. Mrs X was aware of this decision for more than 12 months before she complained to us, it is therefore a late complaint and there is no good reason to investigate it now.

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How I considered this complaint

8. I read the documents Mrs X provided and discussed the complaint with her on the phone.
9. I considered the documents the Council provided in response to my enquiries.
10. Mrs 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

Relevant legislation and guidance

Homelessness

11. Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996 and the Homelessness Code of Guidance for Local Authorities set out councils’ powers and duties to people who are homeless or threatened with homelessness.
12. Someone is homeless if they have no accommodation or if they have accommodation, but it is not reasonable for them and anyone who lives with them to continue to live there. (Housing Act 1996, Section 175)
13. If a council is satisfied an applicant is unintentionally homeless, eligible for assistance, and has a priority need the council has a duty to secure that accommodation is available for their occupation. This is called the main housing duty. The accommodation a council provides until it can end this duty is called temporary accommodation. (Housing Act 1996, section 193)
14. Homeless applicants may request a review within 21 days of being notified of the decision on their homelessness application. There is also a right to request a review of the suitability of temporary accommodation provided once the council has accepted the main housing duty. (Housing Act 1996, section 202)
15. The Homelessness Code of Guidance states councils have a continuing obligation to keep the suitability of accommodation under review, and to respond to any relevant change in circumstances which may affect suitability, until such time as the accommodation duty is brought to an end.

Social housing availability

16. The Ombudsman recognises that the demand for social housing far outstrips the supply of properties in many areas. The Ombudsman may not find fault with a council for failing to re-house someone, if it has prioritised applicants and allocated properties according to its published lettings scheme policy.

Council’s complaint procedure

17. The Council’s complaint procedure says it will respond to housing complaints about tenant/landlord functions within 10 working days of acknowledging it at stage one and 20 working days at stage 2. It will let the complainant know if it needs longer than ten days.
18. For all other complaints it will take 20 working days at stage one, and 25 working days at stage 2.

What happened

19. The following is a summary of relevant events. It does not cover everything that happened since Mrs X moved into the temporary accommodation (TA). Mr X, Mrs X’s husband often acted as Mrs X’s representative in contact with the Council.
20. Mrs X, applied to the Council for housing for her, her husband and children over five years ago as they were about to be made homeless. The Council considered the application, decided it owed them a housing duty and provided TA for them to live in. The family remains in that property. It told Mrs X of its choice based letting scheme for Council housings and encouraged her to bid on permanent properties.
21. Mrs X contacted the Council in February 2022. She complained about her banding for the choice-based lettings. She said the TA was not suitable for the family’s worsening medical needs and the conditions of the TA was poor. Mrs X said it was in a poor state of repair and was very damp and mouldy.
22. The Council responded and apologised for the delay. It provided a response to the allocation banding complaint and said Mrs X should contact the TA team about different TA. It said she should continue to bid using the choice-based lettings scheme for a permanent property.
23. Mrs X complained to us in May 2023. We asked the Council if it had considered the complaint. The Council said as Mrs X remained dissatisfied it would respond at stage two of its complaint procedure by the middle of August 2023.
24. The Council inspected the TA in July 2023. It found there were some minor repairs needed to windows and doors and fire safety equipment. It said it did not find damp in the property other than in the bathroom where the ceiling was damp due to a leak from above. It said it should investigate, identify and fix the leak and repair the damage in the bathroom and monitor the damp as Mrs X said it was worse in the winter. The Inspector said the TA ‘was not unfit for human habitation’ and could continue to be used.
25. The Council responded to Mrs X at the end of July. It said its management company would contact her about the outstanding repairs and wanted to complete them before the end of August 2023.
26. The Council asked the management company to deal with the fire safety matters immediately, and the other matters before the end of August 2023.
27. The management company wrote to Mrs X at the end of August and set out the repairs that needed doing. The letter said Mrs X had told it she would be away for two months and it would wait for her to contact it to say when it could complete the work.
28. The management company told the Council it visited and carried out repairs 13 times between February 2022 and December 2023. It told the Council Mrs X had only allowed it to complete urgent repairs and had declined the minor repairs identified in July 2023.
29. The Council also told Mrs X it would complete a formal suitability assessment in August 2023 because she had said the property did not meet the family’s medical needs. This suitability review is yet to be carried out. In response to my enquiries the Council said the delay in completing the suitability review of Mrs X’s temporary accommodation was caused by staff shortage.
30. The Council confirmed the demand for social housing is much higher than the supply it has available. It said in the 6 months up to March 2024 there were 50 properties available for letting in the category Mrs X can bid for. It said there were 1265 other households bidding for properties in that category.

My findings

Temporary accommodation

31. Mrs X contacted the Council in February 2022 about the conditions in their temporary accommodation and about the suitability of that accommodation given the family’s changing health conditions.
32. The Council should have considered if the TA remained suitable for the family’s health needs given they said their needs had changed and they had been in the property for more than five years. The Council did not consider completing a suitability assessment until July 2023, and there is no evidence it has completed that assessment at the date of this decision. The delay in considering if a suitability assessment was required, and in completing the assessment is fault and has caused Mrs X distress and uncertainty on whether the TA remains suitable for the family’s needs.
33. The Council did not inspect the TA until July 2023. It found there was water damage and minor repairs needed. The delay in completing the inspection was fault and caused Mrs X frustration and uncertainty about whether the Council would have identified and completed the repairs earlier had it acted without fault. The Council also missed the opportunity to inspect the TA during the winter months when Mrs X said the damp and mould was worse. I cannot say on the balance of probabilities what the Council would have found and done had it inspected the property earlier.
34. We have recently made recommendations for the Council to improve its service in relation to completing suitability reviews in good time, and keeping the suitability of temporary accommodation under review. We will keep this under review through our ongoing casework. I have not made any further service improvement recommendations in this case.
35. The Council has acted to complete the repairs identified during its July 2023 inspection. Some of the work has not been completed as Mrs X declined to allow the management company entry.

Available properties

36. Mrs X complained there were no suitable permanent properties for her to bid on. The Ombudsman recognises the demand for social housing far outstrips the supply of properties in many areas. The Council has explained there are over 25 families applying for each social housing property available in Mrs X’s category of properties. I have seen no evidence of fault in the Council’s actions in relation to the availability of social housing and there is insufficient evidence of fault to justify investigating this point further.

Complaint response

37. Mrs X first raised a complaint in February 2022. The Council did not respond until June 2022 which is a delay of four months and is fault. The Council did not properly consider the complaint about the suitability of the temporary accommodation and directed Mrs X to contact the temporary accommodation team. We expect the Council to respond to a complaint raised with one voice. The Council’s failure to respond to all parts of Mrs X’s complaint was fault and caused Mrs X frustration and uncertainty.
38. The Council became aware that Mrs X remained dissatisfied in June 2023. It responded at stage two within the month, which is in line with its complaint procedure. It did not specify if it upheld Mrs X’s complaint or if it found that the matter caused her or her family any injustice. That was fault and caused Mrs X frustration.

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Agreed action

39. Within one month of this decision the Council will:
• write to Mrs X and apologise for the frustration, uncertainty and distress caused by the Council’s faults. We publish guidance on remedies which sets out our expectations for how organisations should apologise effectively to remedy injustice. The Council will consider this guidance in making the apology;
• pay Mrs X a symbolic amount of £1000 to recognise the injustice caused to her;
• complete the suitability review of Mrs X’s temporary accommodation and provide its decision along with any appeal and/or review rights in writing to Mrs X.
40. The Council will provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Final decision

41. I have completed my investigation. I found fault causing injustice and the Council has agreed to my recommendations to remedy that injustice.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman