Summary: There was fault by the Council. The Council has not assessed whether the family are statutorily overcrowded or investigated complaints of damp and mould in the privately rented property. Carrying out the assessments, apologising and reassessing the families housing priority remedies the injustice. There is no fault in the Council’s assessment of medical priority.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I shall call Mr X, complains the Council has not assessed whether his family is statutorily overcrowded.
2. Mr X also complains the Council has not visited to assess disrepair in his privately rented property and his housing priority is not correct. Mr X says the overcrowding and damp in the property is affecting his families health.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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)
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)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I read the papers put in by Mr X.
6. I considered the Council’s comments about the complaint and any supporting documents it provided.
7. Mr X and the organisation 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

8. Mr X lives in a privately rented property with his wife and three children. He complains the property is damp and that it is overcrowded. He also says the Council has not awarded his family enough priority on the housing register.

Medical Priority

9. Mr X asked the Council to reassess his families medical priority. In May 2023 the Council wrote to Mr X to say that it had considered the medical evidence supplied and had placed the family in band C. Band C is for ‘if one or more of the household has an illness or disability of a moderate nature which is affected adversely by their living conditions and a move is recommended to improve the health of the individual’.
10. From the information I have, I can find no fault in the Council’s assessment of medical priority. Two of Mr X’s children have Asthma plans which say they should have no symptoms if they take their inhalers. If Mr X has other evidence he can supply this to the Council, but the Council’s consideration of this evidence is without fault.

Damp and Mould

11. Mr X says the damp and mould in the property is affecting their health. In response to Mr X’s complaint the Council sent a weblink to Mr X to report the problem to the private sector housing team. No assessment of the problem has taken place.
12. Private tenants may complain to their council about a failure by the landlord to keep the property in good repair. Local authorities have powers under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (introduced by the Housing Act 2004, Part 1) to take enforcement action against private landlords where the council has identified a hazard which puts the health and safety of the tenant at risk. If a council considers a category 1 hazard exists in residential premises they must take appropriate enforcement action in accordance with section 5 of the Act.  Councils have discretion to take enforcement action if a category 2 hazard is identified.
13. I can see the Council sent Mr X the link so he could report the problem and I do not know why he did not. However, I do consider the Council should have arranged for the private rental housing team to contact Mr X to offer a visit. The Council has said it will now do this but Mr X said the Council has not contacted him.
14. There has been fault by the Council as it has not contacted Mr X after he reported issues with damp and mould in a privately rented property. To remedy this, the Council should arrange for the assessment to be carried out within two months of the date of the decision on this complaint. I will ask the Council to apologise but I do not consider a financial remedy is appropriate as Mr X could have contacted the Council himself when he was given the details.

Overcrowding

15. A home is overcrowded, according to the Housing Act 1985, when the number of persons sleeping in the dwelling contravenes the room standard or the space standard. This is called being ‘statutorily overcrowded’.
16. Both the Council and Mr X accept that his family is overcrowded, but the Council has said that his family lack one bedroom. As the kitchen/living room can be used for sleeping the Council says the family are not statutorily overcrowded. Mr X says the kitchen/living room is too small and so he considers the family is statutorily overcrowded.
17. The Council has not assessed whether Mr X is statutorily overcrowded, despite Mr X complaining that this is the case. This is fault and to remedy this, the Council should arrange for the assessment to be carried out within two months of the date of the decision on this complaint.

Housing priority

18. Mr X complains the Council has not correctly assessed his priority on the housing register. I have found no fault in the assessment of Mr X’s families’ medical priority but until the Council carries out the damp and overcrowding assessments it is impossible to decide if Mr X’s housing priority is correct. Once the assessments are completed the Council should reassess Mr X’s housing priority and backdate this to when he first complained.

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Agreed action

19. Within one month of the date of the decision on this complaint the Council should:
• Apologise to Mr X.
20. Within two months of the date of the decision on this complaint the Council should:
• Visit Mr X to assess whether his family is statutorily overcrowded and to assess whether the private housing team can take action over the damp and mould in the property.
• Reassess Mr X’s housing priority once the assessment for statutory overcrowding and damp and mould have been completed.
• Backdate any change in housing priority to when Mr X first complained about disrepair and statutory overcrowding.
• Assess whether Mr X has missed any offers of housing if the date of his housing priority was changed.
21. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Final decision

22. I have completed my investigation of this complaint. This complaint is upheld as there has been fault by the Council. Carrying out the actions above, remedies the injustice to the complainant.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman