Summary: Miss X complained about the way the Council dealt with her housing. The Council was at fault for delaying in correcting rent arrears wrongly added to Miss X’s rent account and refusing bids on new properties because of these arrears. This caused Miss X to be in temporary accommodation for longer than she should have been. The Council has agreed to apologise and make a payment to remedy the injustice caused to her.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains the Council wrongly placed arrears on her rent account and wrongly refused her bids on new properties because of these arrears.
2. Miss X says this has caused her to have to remain in temporary accommodation for longer than necessary. She also says this has caused her and her family significant distress.

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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. 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(1), as amended)

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What I have and have not investigated

5. I have not investigated Miss X’s complaint that the Council wrongly placed arrears on her rent account because this was already investigated in a previous Ombudsman investigation. The Council accepted fault in this investigation.
6. I have investigated Miss X’s complaint that the Council wrongly refused bids on new properties because of rent arrears.

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered evidence provided by Miss X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
8. Miss X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

Legislation and guidance

The Council’s policy - disqualification from an offer for rent arrears

9. The Council’s policy says a tenant can bid for accommodation from the housing register with rent arrears, but the rent account balance must be zero before the Council makes any offers of accommodation.

Reinstatement in exceptional cases

10. In exceptional cases, the Council can make an offer to an applicant disqualified from receiving an offer despite the existence of rent arrears.
11. A manager may authorise a move despite arrears (MDA) if they are satisfied there are exceptional circumstances.

Band 1: Emergency Priority

12. Applicants in Band 1 have the highest priority.

What happened?

13. Miss X had been homeless and living in temporary accommodation for several years. In 2023 the Council moved her to alternative temporary accommodation because of disrepair issues at her long-term temporary accommodation. The Council opened a new rent account for this alternative temporary accommodation in addition to the account for her original temporary accommodation. The Council noted there was some confusion about which property Miss X’s housing benefit should have been paid to, which meant it incorrectly added rent arrears to one of her rent accounts.
14. At the beginning of October 2024, internal Council emails noted Council officers should consider an MDA for Miss X because of the incorrect rent arrears it had added to one of her accounts.
15. In mid-October, the Council contacted Miss X to say she had been shortlisted for a property, in position four, but she needed to clear her rent arrears to be considered. The following day, the Council noted that Miss X did not respond to its calls and emails, nor had she cleared the rent arrears and so it would not consider her for the shortlisted property.
16. Miss X contacted the Council the following day to explain the rent arrears had been wrongly added to her account.
17. In mid-November, Miss X finished in position one for a property, but the Council rejected her from the shortlist because of the rent arrears.
18. Internal Council emails show that a Council officer asked for the MDA to be added to Miss X’s account around a week later. The Council approved this and added this to Miss X’s account a week later.
19. Miss X complained to the Council in early December. She said she was still in unsuitable accommodation, and the Council had wrongly rejected her for two properties because of the rent arrears.
20. Council records note that the Council corrected Miss X’s rent arrears shortly after this, taking her accounts into credit.
21. The Council responded to Miss X’s stage one complaint on in mid-December. The Council noted that Miss X had not bid on any properties since it added the MDA and so she had not missed out on any offers of properties. But, the Council upheld her complaint and noted that it failed to correct rent arrears on her account and because of this she experienced delays in moving to permanent accommodation.
22. Miss X asked the Council to escalate her complaint to stage two in early February 2025, because she was unhappy with the Council’s stage one response.
23. The Council responded to Miss X’s stage two complaint in mid-March. It noted she bid for a property in October 2024 but finished in fourth position and would not have been offered this property. It also explained that Miss X’s property bid in November 2024, was before the Council added the MDA to her account. As the MDA was not in place when she finished in position one she was correctly rejected from the shortlist. The Council did not uphold her complaint.
24. Miss X bid on a property in mid-April 2025 and was successful. She moved into this permanent accommodation in May 2025.

Findings

25. The Council has already accepted it wrongly added rent arrears to one of Miss X’s rent accounts in another Ombudsman investigation, and so I will not repeat any findings or recommendations about this matter.
26. I have however investigated whether the Council wrongly adding the rent arrears caused Miss X to miss out on offers of permanent accommodation.
27. The Council accepted in its stage one complaint response in December 2024 that it had failed to correct rent arrears on Miss X’s account and because of this, she experienced delays in moving to permanent accommodation.
28. Miss X placed two bids on properties before the Council corrected the rent arrears on her account. She came fourth in the shortlist for the property she bid on in October 2024. The Council offered this property to another applicant who was ranked higher on the shortlist. This was in line with the Council’s allocation policy and so there was no fault in its actions here.
29. However, when Miss X bid on a property in November 2024, the Council rejected her application because of the rent arrears it had incorrectly added to her account. This happened even though the Council had already acknowledged in an internal email in early October that it should consider making an MDA due to the incorrect rent arrears. Despite this, the Council delayed in considering the MDA until the end of November 2024 after Miss X complained.
30. The Council was at fault for delaying the correction of the rent arrears on Miss X’s account. Because of this delay, the Council rejected Miss X for a property even though she had finished in first position for it. As the Council later offered Miss X the next property for which she finished in first position, on balance, I consider that she would have been offered the property in November 2024 if the Council had corrected the rent arrears sooner.
31. This caused Miss X significant distress and frustration. It also caused her to be in temporary accommodation until May 2025 which was longer than she should have been. I will make recommendations for the Council to remedy the personal injustice this caused Miss X.

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Action

32. Within four weeks of our final decision, the Council has agreed to:
1. apologise to Miss X for the identified faults. 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 its apology; and
2. make a payment of £750 for the injustice caused to Miss X and her family living in temporary accommodation for longer than they should have done, between November 2024 (when the Council rejected her bid because of incorrect rent arrears) and April 2025 (which was the month Miss X was successful for the new property). This is calculated at £150 per month.
33. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

34. I find fault causing injustice. The Council has agreed to remedy the injustice caused.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman