Summary: Ms X complained the Council had failed to provide suitable temporary accommodation for her and her family since 2021. We found the Council is at fault. This fault has caused injustice to Ms X and her family as they have been living in unsuitable accommodation which is impacting their health. The Council will apologise and make a payment to Ms X in acknowledgement of the impact this has had.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains about housing provided to her family since she made a homelessness application. She says Ms X and her family were allocated unsuitable temporary accommodation in September 2021 (Property A). As the property required repairs, the Council decanted the family to another property (Property B) which was also unsuitable for their needs. Ms X was left in the property for over a year. When the family returned to Property A, they found the repairs had not been carried out.
2. Ms X says the unsuitable accommodation is significantly impacting her son’s health issues. She says this has also impacted her own physical and mental health.
3. Ms X would like the Council to provide suitable accommodation for her and her family.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. 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)
5. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I have considered the information provided by Ms X, the Council, and the relevant law and guidance.
7. Ms X and the Council have had an opportunity to provide their comments in response to a draft decision, which have been considered before this final decision was made.

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What I found

Law and Guidance

8. Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996 and the Homelessness Code of Guidance for Local Authorities (the Code) sets out councils’ powers and duties to people who are homeless or threatened with homelessness. If a council is satisfied an applicant is homeless, eligible for assistance, and has a priority need, it has a duty to secure that accommodation is available for their occupation. This is called the main housing duty. (Housing Act 1996, section 193)
9. Temporary accommodation is accommodation provided to homeless applicants as part of a council’s main homelessness duty.
10. Councils must ensure all accommodation provided to homeless applicants is suitable for the needs of the applicant and members of his or her household. This duty applies to interim accommodation and accommodation provided under the main homelessness duty. (Housing Act 1996, section 206 and (from 3 April 2018) Homelessness Code of Guidance 17.2)
11. Council’s must assess whether accommodation is suitable for each household individually. Whether accommodation is suitable will depend on the relevant needs and circumstances of the homeless person and their household. (Homelessness Code of Guidance, 17.4 and 17.9)

The duty to provide suitable accommodation is immediate, non-deferrable, and unqualified. (Elkundi, R (on the Application Of) v Birmingham City Council [2022] EWCA Civ 601)

What happened

12. The Council provided temporary accommodation (Property A) for Ms X and her family in September 2021. The property is a two story flat on the first floor and does not have a lift. There is a steep slope to access the property.
13. Ms X lives with her four children. Her young son suffers from a multitude of health problems, including significant issues with his breathing. This means he has significant problems climbing any stairs.
14. In late Summer of 2022, the Council moved the family to another temporary property (Property B) for a short term stay while it arranged for repairs to be carried out at Property A.
15. Property B is on the third floor and does not have a lift. The family remained in this property for almost two years.
16. On returning to Property A, Ms X found the repairs they had been moved out for had not been completed. Amongst other issues, the property has black mould and damp in the bedrooms.
17. The Council accept and apologise that it has provided unsuitable accommodation but said it could not increase Ms X’s priority need as there were families in even more need than hers. It said she should continue to bid for suitable properties.
18. Since the draft decision was issued, the Council has offered Ms X a suitable property.

Analysis

19. The Council has accepted its main housing duty and is therefore providing Ms X and her family with temporary accommodation. Where the main housing duty has been accepted, the Council has a duty to provide suitable accommodation. Providing an unsuitable property is a breach of the Council’s S.206 statutory duty. This is fault.
20. The Council accepted the family require a single-story ground floor property, or a property with a lift, in October 2023. Property B does not meet this criterion.
21. Although the Council told Ms X to continue to bid on properties, this did not solve the issue. I have not been provided with any evidence the Council took proactive steps to move Ms X and her family to suitable accommodation, until May 2024.
22. Ms X has provided the Council with evidence of her son’s significant health issues and of the impact the property was having and would continue to have on him. The family were living in accommodation which required her son to exert himself beyond his ability since they moved into Property B. He was living in a home which had damp and black mould and was particularly vulnerable to the impact of this due to numerous respiratory conditions. He has been exposed to significant risk to his health.
23. In addition to this, the family have been put to the distress and inconvenience of moving to another property, which was unsuitable. The family then suffered the disappointment of finding that the purpose of displacing them had not even been achieved. The impact on this family is therefore significant.
24. As well as the impact on her son’s health, Ms X has shown her own mental and physical health has been impacted by their living conditions.
25. In its response to Ms X’s complaint the Council accepted it had failed to provide her with suitable accommodation and offered a payment of £2,000. I do not consider this remedy as suitable, taking into account the individual circumstances of this case. In particular:
• The length of time Ms X and her family remained in unsuitable accommodation;
• moving Ms X and her family to Property B, which was unsuitable;
• the Council’s failure to complete all the repairs to Property A, which was the reason for moving the family out of this property;
• significant impact of the unsuitable property on Ms X and her son’s health.

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Agreed action

26. To remedy the fault identified, the Council should, within one month of the decision:
• Apologise to Ms X for the impact the fault has had on her and her family – the apology should adhere to our “Guidance on Remedies”;
• Make a payment of £350 for every month the family have been in unsuitable accommodation, so £7,700 to date instead of the Council’s offer of £2000.
27. Within three months of the decision, the Council should:

• Evidence the Council has considered how it decided Property A had been sufficiently repaired before moving the family back, and how it missed the outstanding issues;
• Evidence the Council has put a process in place to ensure this is not repeated.

28. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Final decision

29. We found the Council is at fault and caused an injustice. The Council will apologise, make a recognition payment to Ms X and implement service improvements.

Investigator’s final decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman