Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s assessment of Miss X’s housing application. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained about the Council’s failure to give her sufficient priority for a move to alternative accommodation. She says her current social rented home is overcrowded and she has had problems with the heating system and noise from neighbours.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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 how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered the information provided by the complainant and the Council. I have also considered the Council’s housing allocation scheme.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Miss X applied to the Council’s housing register in 2021. She is currently a social housing tenant and lives in a two-bedroom maisonette with her family and says she is overcrowded. She asked the Council to carry out medical reviews of her case in 2022 on three occasions but the outcome did not change her priority because the Council says there is insufficient medical housing need for this according to its allocations policy.
6. In 2023 she made a formal complaint and stated her child’s bedroom was cold despite the heater being hot and harassment from children in the area. The Council inspected her heating but found no faults with it. It told her that she had made a similar complaint to the Housing Ombudsman in 2022 and no fault was found in their investigation.
7. In September she made a second stage complaint, adding that her neighbours were causing disturbance and she suspected domestic violence may be taking place. The Council investigated the matter as a tenancy issue and told her it could not divulge the outcome due to data protection issues. Miss X asked the Council to give her a direct transfer or move her to temporary accommodation.
8. I have seen no evidence of fault which would suggest that Miss X should be placed in a higher banding. The assessment found that she is short of a bedroom and can bid on 3-bedroomed properties. She has no medical priority and has had her application reviewed more than once. We cannot consider the repair and tenancy management or direct transfer issues she has raised because these are outside our jurisdiction and she has previously involved the Housing Ombudsman Service.
9. The Ombudsman may not find fault with a council’s assessment of a housing application/ a housing applicant’s priority if it has carried this out in line with its published allocations scheme. We recognise that the demand for social housing far outstrips the supply of properties in many areas.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s assessment of Miss X’s housing application. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman