London Borough of Enfield (25 003 497)
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council closing Mr X’s housing register application. The Council agreed to apologise and make a symbolic payment of £300 to Mr X which is an appropriate remedy so an investigation would not be proportionate.
The complaint
- Mr X complained that the Council:
- Wrongly closed his housing register and did not notify him of the decision.
- Delayed in dealing with his complaint at stage two of the complaints procedure.
- Mr X says that the Council’s actions caused significant distress to him.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X has been on the Council’s housing register for a number of years. On 7 November 2024, the Council closed his housing register application. It reopened the application on 7 March 2025.
- If we were to investigate Mr X’s complaint it is likely we would find fault causing injustice to him. In response to Mr X’s complaint, the Council acknowledged it wrongly closed Mr X’s housing application between 7 November 2024 and 7 March 2025. The closure caused distress to Mr X and some uncertainty as to whether he missed an offer during this time. The Council also took two months longer than its target timescale to respond to Mr X’s complaint at stage two of its complaints process. The time taken put Mr X to avoidable time and trouble when pursuing his complaint.
- We invited the Council to apologise to Mr X and make a symbolic payment of £300 to acknowledge the distress and avoidable time and trouble caused to him.
Agreed Action
- The Council agreed to resolve Mr X’s complaint by apologising to him and making a symbolic payment of £300 to acknowledge the distress and avoidable time and trouble caused. The Council will take this action within one month of this final decision.
- As the Council agreed to our proposed remedy, we will not investigate this complaint as it would not be proportionate to do so.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. The Council agreed to provide an appropriate remedy so it would not be proportionate to investigate the complaint.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman