Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council changing temporary accommodation locations for a homeless applicant over the past 7 years. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained about the Council moving her from different temporary accommodation locations in the past 7 years that she has been accepted as homeless. She says moving is unsettling for her family and her most recent accommodation was subject to a notice to quit within a year of her moving there. She wants the Council to give her permanent housing instead of a series of shorthold private tenancies.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered the information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Miss X says she has been placed in different temporary accommodation addresses over the past 7 years and she finds it unsettling of her family, particularly her children. Her latest accommodation was only available for a short time before the landlord served a notice to quit due to selling the property. She says the Council should find her settled permanent accommodation.
6. The Council says there is a shortage of accommodation generally in its area with over 39,000 applicants on the housing register. It has a duty under the Housing Act 1996 to provide temporary accommodation, but this is mainly from the private sector and it cannot predict if a landlord may decide to sell their property at short notice leaving the Council to find alternative accommodation.
7. Councils have a duty to provide temporary accommodation for persons accepted under the homelessness legislation. There is no fixed period of time this will be necessary before more permanent accommodation can be provided and vacancies are increasingly being overtaken by demand.
8. The Ombudsman is not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly, we cannot say that there is fault, regardless of whether someone disagrees with the decision the organisation made.
9. Whilst it may be upsetting for Miss X to have to move her family there is no fault on the part of the Council provided it continues to ensure that she has accommodation available.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate this complaint about the Council changing temporary accommodation locations for a homeless applicant over the past 7 years. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman