Summary: Mrs X complained about the Council’s handling of her housing application. She says the Council has failed to provide her with the correct information and mismanaged her application. We found the Council at fault, which caused Mrs X injustice. The Council should make payment and apologise to Mrs X.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains about the Council’s handling of her housing application. She says the Council failed to provide her with the correct information and mismanaged her application. She reports that this issue has affected her family as they have remained in an overcrowded property with her children growing up.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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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What I have and have not investigated

6. Mrs X says the Council failed to provide proper guidance regarding her application in 2020. This led to delays in her application which she was not able to progress until she was advised correctly.
7. I have not investigated this. Although Mrs X says that she was not aware of the Ombudsman at the time, there was nothing preventing her from escalating the complaint. Therefore, issues which occurred in 2020 would be considered late. As I have said above, I cannot investigate late complaints unless there are good reasons for us to do so.
8. Mrs X says that in 2023 she made a further application, which the Council have also mismanaged. The Council has admitted there have been errors in the way that it has handled Mrs X’s application. The Council confirms that it has now resolved these errors.
9. As the Council has admitted to errors which have impacted Mrs X’s application since 2023 and to which it has only resolved in 2025, the Ombudsman can investigate this now. This is because it was reasonable for Mrs X to wait for the Council to resolve this issue, before asking the Ombudsman to review this.

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How I considered this complaint

10. I considered evidence provided by Mrs X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance. Mrs X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.
11. I have also considered the relevant statutory guidance, as set out below. Also, I have considered the Ombudsman’s published guidance on remedies.

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What I found

What should have happened

12. 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))
13. 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))

14. Councils must notify applicants in writing of the following decisions and give reasons:

• that the applicant is not eligible for an allocation;
• that the applicant is not a qualifying person;
• a decision not to award the applicant reasonable preference because of their unacceptable behaviour.

15. The Council must also notify the applicant of the right to request a review of these decisions. (Housing Act 1996, section 166A(9))
16. Housing applicants can ask the council to review a wide range of decisions about their applications, including decisions about their housing priority.

What happened

17. In April 2023, Mrs X applied for the housing register. Due to backlogs the Council say the application was not progressed within the usual timeframe. Mrs X says that she could not add her daughter to the application and the Council says that this was because of technical problems.
18. In November 2023 Mrs X completed a change of circumstances form which tried to add her daughter to the application. She made a complaint In February 2024 about the delays. In March 2024, Mrs X’s daughter was added to the application and the Council confirmed Mrs X’s current property is overcrowded.
19. In February 2025, the Council backdated Mrs X’s banding priority back to May 2023 and in June 2025 her banding was increased to band two.

Analysis

20. The Council has agreed there were delays in processing Mrs X’s application in 2023. I consider the Council to be at fault for this. This has impacted Mrs X by causing her distress in the form of uncertainty in not knowing whether her application was being processed.
21. This distress was increased by the delays caused by the Council being unable to add Mrs X’s daughter to her application. This led to Mrs X being placed in the wrong banding in 2023 until the Council resolved this in 2024.
22. Also, the Council then delayed the matter further by not adding Mrs X’s correct banding to her application until 2025. This again would have caused injustice in increasing the distress Mrs X felt about this matter.
23. The Council has provided evidence of its housing register for the period in question. It shows that Mrs X did not miss out on any potential properties that she would have been eligible for, if her banding level was correct in 2023. The Council has also correctly backdated Mrs X’s banding priority and recently increased this because of her completing a ‘good tenant’ application.
24. I accept that Mrs X is unhappy that she has remained in a property which is deemed as overcrowded. However, I also must consider the chronic lack of social housing available. This means even if the Council had handled her application correctly in 2023, she still would be in the same position of waiting for available housing in 2025.
25. I can only therefore remedy the injustice Mrs X has experienced by the Council’s poor handling of the application. I have found that this has caused her distress in the form of uncertainty. Both by the delay and in not knowing if she was missing out on eligible properties that she could move into.
26. I have reviewed the Council’s offer regarding its failure in the way it handled Mrs X’s application, and I consider this offer to be fair, and I have decided to maintain it.
27. The Ombudsman in the past year has already made several recommendations against the Council specifically about its housing register and backlog. The Council is therefore in the process of improving this service. I have therefore decided not to recommend any further service improvements.

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Action

28. Within four weeks of my final decision, the Council has agreed to:
• Provide a written apology to Mrs X for the delay and mishandling of her housing register application. This apology should be in line with our guidance on making an effective apology.
• Make a symbolic payment of £610 for the mishandling of Mrs X’s housing register application and in recognition of the distress the matter caused her.
29. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

30. I find fault causing injustice. The Council has agreed to apologise and make a payment to Mrs X.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman