Summary: The Council was at fault for the way it handled Ms X’s housing application as it included historical rent arrears on her account and later removed these. This caused injustice as Ms X does not know whether she could have obtained accommodation if these arrears were not on her account. The Council agreed to apologise to Ms X and make a payment to recognise the uncertainty caused.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council restricted her ability to receive offers on its housing register due to former rent arrears which it later removed from her rent account.
2. Ms X says she believes she could have missed out on getting a property through the Council’s housing register.

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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. 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. As part of this investigation I considered the information provided by Ms X and the Council. I discussed the complaint over the telephone with Ms X. I made enquiries with the Council and considered the information received in response. I sent a draft of this decision to Ms X and the Council and considered the comments received in response.

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What I found

Housing allocations

7. Every local housing authority must publish an allocations scheme that sets out how it prioritises applicants, and its procedures for allocating housing. All allocations must be made in strict accordance with the published scheme. (Housing Act 1996, section 166A(1) & (14))
8. An allocations scheme must give reasonable preference to applicants in the following categories:

• homeless people;
• people in insanitary, overcrowded or unsatisfactory housing;
• people who need to move on medical or welfare grounds;
• people who need to move to avoid hardship to themselves or others;
  (Housing Act 1996, section 166A(3))

The Council’s housing allocations policy

9. The Council operates a choice-based lettings scheme which enables housing applicants to bid for available properties which it advertises.
10. The Council’s allocation policy states, if applicants owe the Council or one of their Partner Landlords either current or former tenant rent arrears they can bid for accommodation from the Housing Register. An applicants rent account balance must be zero before the Council will make an offer of accommodation.

What happened

11. Ms X is a Council tenant. She lives in a two bedroom property with her partner and three children. Ms X moved into her property in 2011. Ms X has been on the Council housing register since 2016. She was in Band 3. However since October 2022, the Council placed her into Band 4 after the Council issued a new housing allocations scheme. Ms X’s household is in Band 4 as the Council considers them overcrowded by one bedroom.
12. In 2014-2015 Ms X had a disrepair claim. As part of this the Council agreed any rent arrears on her rent account should be written off.
13. In early 2022 Ms X applied for a Thames Water rebate for the water charges she previously paid to the Arm’s Length Management Organisation (ALMO) who managed the Council’s hosing stock. As a result of this application she found out there were historical rent arrears on her account.
14. Ms X initially asked her MP for help who contacted the Council. The Council responded in May 2023 said Ms X owed money on a previous tenancy.
15. In June 2022, Ms X complained to the Council. Ms X said the Council was using a rent account which did not exist to say she had arrears. Ms X said this was affecting her ability to get alternative accommodation through the Council’s housing register.
16. The Council responded in July 2023. The Council said Ms X had a debt on a previous rent account and this was before the Council transferred its stock to an Arm’s Length Management Organisation (ALMO). The Council said its housing allocation policy says Ms X was still able to bid on properties but could not receive offers with her rent arrears.
17. Ms X asked the Council to consider her complaint at the next stage of its process. The Council provided Ms X with a response in August 2022. The Council confirmed Ms X owed money on a former rent account. This meant she would not receive offers of properties on the housing register until she cleared this debt.
18. Ms X responded to the Council and argued the Council did not make her aware of any arrears on her account. Ms X explained that she had a disrepair case against the Council in 2015 and believed any outstanding rent charges were wiped out.
19. The Council considered Ms X’s complaint about her rent account at its final stage in 2023. The Council decided there was fault in its record keeping regarding the arrears. As a result Ms X lost the chance to challenge any arrears on her account at the time of her disrepair case in 2015. The Council agreed to write off any rent arrears.
20. Ms X remained dissatisfied and complained to the Ombudsman that the arrears on her rent account have affected her ability to obtain accommodation through the Council’s housing register.
21. In response to my enquiries the Council said it could not provide any information about bids Ms X placed before April 2021. The Council said it did have a policy to telephone applicants with rent arrears before withdrawing a property to give them the opportunity to pay off the arrears. The Council said it did not think Ms X would have been successful in obtaining accommodation on the housing register.

Analysis

22. I have exercised discretion to consider the impact on Ms X from 2016 onwards. This is because Ms X was not aware of the arrears and restriction on her housing application until 2022 and complained to the Council soon after finding out. I also consider any injustice relating to the restriction on Ms X’s housing application would be continuing injustice.
23. Following Ms X’s disrepair case in 2015, her rent account had a restriction placed on it. However from the information provided Ms X did not know about this restriction until she applied for a Thames Water rebate in 2022. As a result Ms X would not have been able to receive an offer of accommodation from 2016 onwards.
24. I am satisfied the Council was at fault here. It did not tell Ms X about the historical arrears on her rent account it considered she owed and that this affected her ability to obtain a property on its housing register. As the Council decided to remove the arrears Ms X has had a restriction placed on her housing application for many years unnecessarily.
25. As I have found fault I need to consider what injustice this caused. Ms X said she believes she has missed out on getting a property on the housing register because of the arrears. Therefore she would not have been offered a property even if she was one of the top bidders due to the arrears on her account.
26. The Council said that since April 2021, Ms X has not been bypassed for an offer of accommodation due to the arrears. However the Council does not have the data to show whether Ms X was bypassed for a property from 2016 to April 2021. The Council said it did not believe Ms X would have obtained accommodation due to the wait times for applicants in her Band. It also said it would have telephoned applicants with rent arrears to give them the opportunity to clear the arrears if they were successful in bidding for a property on the housing register. We have no evidence to confirm the Council’s or Ms X’s position, therefore there is uncertainty about whether Ms X would have obtained accommodation on the housing register before April 2021.

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Agreed action

27. Within one month of my final decision the Council agreed to carry out the following:
• Apologise to Ms X for the way it managed her housing register account.
• Pay Ms X £400 to recognise the uncertainty she has experienced in not knowing whether she could have obtained a property on the housing register as a result of the rent arrears on her account. In coming to this figure I have considered the Ombudsman’s guidance on remedies.
28. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Final decision

29. I have completed my investigation and found the Council was at fault which caused injustice. The Council agreed to the above actions to remedy the injustice caused.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman