Summary: Miss X complained about how the Council considered her housing application. The Council was at fault for significant delay in deciding on Miss X’s application, failing to tell Miss X of her right to ask the Council to review its decision and for failing to act on one of her review requests. This caused Miss X avoidable frustration. To remedy her injustice, the Council will apologise, invite Miss X to make a new housing application and pay her £300. The Council will also issue a staff reminder.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained about how the Council considered her housing application, including how it considered her child, W’s, medical needs.
2. I have been unable to speak to Miss X to explore what injustice she feels the Council’s actions caused her. Nonetheless it was clear the complaint contained matters where there was significant potential injustice so I have still investigated the complaint.

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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. Miss X complained about matters dating back to March 2021. However, she was delayed complaining to the Ombudsman because the Council took over a year to consider her housing application and because she first complained to the Housing Ombudsman, who referred her to us at the end of its investigation. I have therefore investigated the entire period Miss X complained about.
6. When considering complaints we make findings based on the balance of probabilities. This means that we look at the available relevant evidence and decide what was more likely to have happened.
7. 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

8. I have considered:
• the Council’s comments about the complaint and the supporting documents it provided; and
• the Council’s policies, relevant law and guidance and the Ombudsman's guidance on remedies.
9. Miss 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 law and guidance

10. Every local housing authority must publish an allocations scheme that sets out how it prioritises applicants on its housing register, 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))
11. When a council receives an application to join its housing register, it decides what priority the applicant should have, and how many bedrooms they need. The Council’s allocation scheme sets out it places applicants in one of three priority bands. Band one applicants have the highest priority and band three have the lowest priority.
12. The Council uses the government’s bedroom standard to decide how many bedrooms an applicant needs. The standard sets out the following people get a bedroom each:
• a single parent;
• each pair of children aged 10-20 of the same sex; and
• each pair of children under 10 years of age.
13. The Council’s scheme notes it can act outside of the bedroom standard in exceptional circumstances. It says the Council may award more bedrooms than the standard allows for if someone in the household has health needs which mean they need more space.
14. The Housing Act 1996 sets out applicants have a wide range of review rights on council housing decisions. This includes the right to request a review of a council’s decision on their housing priority and bed need.

What happened

15. In late March 2021, Miss X applied to join the Council’s housing register in order to transfer from her Council owned flat to a larger property. She said she needed three bedrooms because of one of her children, W’s, needs and included a medical assessment form and some evidence relating to W’s needs.
16. In June 2021, a flat above Miss X’s flooded, causing significant disrepair to her home.
17. Miss X complained to the Council about the delay responding to her housing application in September 2021. She also complained about disrepair issues in her home, stemming from the water damage. The Council responded to Miss X’s complaint about the disrepair at the end of the month. It did not address her complaint about the delay considering her housing application.
18. In early May 2022, Miss X made a further complaint to the Council. She said she still did not have a response to her housing register application.
19. The Council responded at stage one of its complaints procedure at the end of May to say it was sorry for the delay responding to her housing application. It said its medical advisor accepted she had a medical need for more space and recommended Miss X be placed in band three with a two-bed need. However, the Council had decided Miss X should be in band two. The Council also responded to Miss X’s concerns about the disrepair. It did not tell Miss X she could request a review of her banding and room need.
20. Miss X asked the Council for a stage two response to her complaint about the disrepair. In an email in early July Miss X added to her complaint request that she was unhappy with the Council’s decision that she only needed two bedrooms. She said she needed a three-bed home because W was violent to her other child. She said she was waiting for W to receive a final diagnosis and that external agencies involved with the family all agreed she needed three bedrooms. Miss X said she would send supporting letters from those agencies.
21. Miss X sent one letter from her social worker. It noted W had additional needs and their sibling’s emotional wellbeing was a cause for concern. It said there was conflict between the siblings which was hard for Miss X to manage. The social worker said it would be beneficial for each child to have their own bedroom.
22. In July 2022, the Council identified a house for Miss X to move into.
23. The Council sent its stage two response to Miss X’s complaint in April 2023. It only addressed the disrepair issues in her current home.
24. Miss X complained to the Housing Ombudsman. It considered the Council’s handling of the disrepair at Miss X’s home and noted the Council had responded to Miss X’s complaint poorly. Specifically, it said the Council’s stage one and two responses did not respond to all of Miss X’s points relating to the disrepair and the stage two response was very delayed. The Housing Ombudsman recommended the Council pay Miss X £250 for the distress and time and trouble she experienced because of the poor complaints handling.
25. The Council cleared the backlog of housing applications in November 2023 and now considers new applications within eight weeks.
26. The Council sent me records of its housing allocations which show the delay responding to Miss X’s application did not mean she missed out on an opportunity to move home.

Findings

Housing

27. Although there is no set timescale for responding to a person’s housing application, we expect councils to consider them in good time. We think this is around two months (eight weeks). The Council took fourteen months to come to a decision on Miss X’s housing application. This was a significant delay and was fault.
28. However, the delay did not mean Miss X missed out on an opportunity to move home. Therefore, her injustice was frustration. The Council has now cleared the backlog, so I have not made a further recommendation.
29. When the Council issued its stage one response to Miss X’s second complaint in late May 2022, it included its decision on her housing application. The letter did not include any information on Miss X’s right to ask for a review of the Council’s decision on what banding she should have and how many bedrooms she needed. This was not in accordance with the law and was fault.
30. The Council decided Miss X needed two bedrooms, in accordance with the room standard. However, Miss X felt she should have three bedrooms because of the impact of W’s needs. In early July, Miss X told the Council she was unhappy it had decided she needed two bedrooms and she sent a letter in support of her view. The Council should have treated Miss X’s contact as a review request and formally considered her views alongside the letter. The Council did not do this, which was fault. This means Miss X has missed out an opportunity to challenge the Council’s decision, which will have caused her further avoidable frustration.
31. Miss X moved into a two-bed home the Council identified in July 2022, which means she is no longer on the Council’s housing register. It would therefore be inappropriate for me to recommend the Council carry out a fresh review of Miss X’s bedroom need. I have instead recommended the Council invite Miss X to make a new housing application if she still feels she should have three bedrooms.

Complaints

32. The Council did not respond to the part of Miss X’s complaint about her housing application in September 2021. This was a significant part of her complaint, which the Council should have answered. This was fault, which caused Miss X further frustration. The recommendation made by the Housing Ombudsman did not address the injustice caused by this fault, so I have made a further recommendation below.

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Action

33. Within one month of the date of my final decision, the Council will take the following actions.
1. Apologise to Miss X for the frustration she experienced because of the faults set out in this decision. We publish guidance on remedies which sets out our expectations for how organisations should apologise effectively to remedy injustice. The Council should consider this guidance in making the apology.
2. Pay Miss X £300 in recognition of that injustice.
3. Invite Miss X to make a new housing application if she still feels she should have three bedrooms.
4. Remind relevant members of staff that when they issue a decision on a person’s housing application, they must include information on that person’s right of review. This must happen regardless of whether the decision is included in the Council’s complaint response.
34. The Council will provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

35. I have completed my investigation. I have found fault leading to personal injustice. I have recommended action to remedy that injustice and prevent reoccurrence of this fault.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman