Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s assessment of a housing application. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained about the Council’s failure to rehouse her following domestic violence at her home which she reported to her social housing landlord in December 2024. She says a multiagency meeting in March 2025 concluded that she needed to move out of the area urgently but she remains in her social rented accommodation even though she has high priority for a transfer from her landlord and with the Council.

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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
• there is another body better placed to consider this complaint.

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

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered 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 is a tenant of a housing association which is a registered social landlord. She reported domestic abuse to her landlord and a multi-agency meeting was convened in early 2025. The meeting resulted in her landlord accepting her for a like for like management move at the recommendation of the Police. The landlord offered temporary accommodation until a vacancy could be found outside the area but Miss X refused this.
6. We cannot investigate internal transfer and exchange matters within housing associations as they fall within the remit of the Housing Ombudsman and are outside the1996 Housing Act allocations which are within our jurisdiction.
7. Miss X approached the Council in June 2025 and it accepted her under the Relief duty of the homelessness legislation in July. Under this duty temporary accommodation was advised and this would be outside the area where she was at risk. Miss X has not taken up a temporary accommodation offer and remains in her housing association home.
8. The Council considered her application under a discretionary housing management panel in July and accepted her as being eligible for band 1B Extenuating Management priority which is the highest priority available under her circumstances. Miss X says she has been bidding for suitable 1-bedroom properties but has not received any offers.
9. The Council says despite her high priority there is high demand and a shortage of housing. She can only accept temporary accommodation if she needs to move away from her current area until a suitable vacancy is available on her level of priority.
10. 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 question whether the decision was right or wrong, regardless of whether someone disagrees with the decision the organisation made.
11. We may not find fault with a council’s assessment of a housing applicant’s priority if it has carried this out in line with its published allocations scheme. We recognise that the demand for social housing far outstrips the supply of properties in many areas. In this case the Council accepted her homelessness application and assessed her housing priority promptly once she had approached it. She could have accepted temporary accommodation to move from her current home where she says she is at risk.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s assessment of a housing application. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman