Summary: The Council was at fault for failing to provide Miss X temporary accommodation when she was experiencing domestic abuse, causing her distress and frustration. Delay in a review of her housing priority banding, poor communication and delay in the Council’s complaint handling added to her frustration. The Council has agreed to apologise to Miss X and to make a payment to acknowledge the impact of its faults.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained the Council failed to support her with rehousing when she was experiencing domestic abuse, causing distress and ongoing risk.

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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 recommend a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
3. 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)
4. When considering complaints we make findings based on the balance of probabilities. This means that we look at the available relevant evidence and decide what was more likely to have happened.
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(1), as amended)

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What I have and have not investigated

6. I have investigated the actions of the Council since September 2024 as this is 12 months before Miss X made her complaint to us. I have included some information from earlier to provide background information. But I have not investigated these earlier events because they are late and there is no good reason to do so.

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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 received before making a final decision.

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What I found

Relevant Law and Guidance

Homelessness

9. Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996 and the Homelessness Code of Guidance for Local Authorities set out councils’ powers and duties to people who are homeless or threatened with homelessness.
10. Someone is homeless if they have no accommodation or if they have accommodation, but it is not reasonable for them and anyone who lives with them to continue to live there. (Housing Act 1996, Section 175)

Homelessness and Domestic Abuse

11. Section 177 of the Housing Act, 1996, says it is not reasonable for a person to continue to occupy accommodation if it is probable that this will lead to violence or domestic abuse against them, or against a person who would normally or reasonably be expected to live with them. (Homelessness Code of Guidance, Chapter 21)
12. The Council should try to get an account of the applicant’s experience to assess whether the behaviour they have experienced is abusive or whether they would be at risk of domestic abuse if they continued to occupy their accommodation. The authority should support the victim to outline their experience and make an assessment based on the details of the case. (Homelessness Code of Guidance, Chapter 21)
13. The Code says applicants at risk of domestic abuse should not be expected to return home on the strength of an injunction - such as an occupation or non-molestation order – as these are not always effective. (Homelessness Code of Guidance, Chapter 21)

The main housing duty

14. If a council is satisfied an applicant is homeless, eligible for assistance, and has a priority need the council has a duty to make accommodation available (unless it refers the application to another housing authority under section 198). But councils will not owe the main housing duty to applicants who have turned down a suitable final accommodation offer or a Housing Act Part 6 offer made during the relief stage, or if a council has given them notice under section 193B(2) due to their deliberate and unreasonable refusal to co-operate. (Housing Act 1996, section 193 and Homelessness Code of Guidance 15.39)

Temporary accommodation

15. If a council is satisfied an applicant is unintentionally homeless, eligible for assistance, and has a priority need the council has a duty to secure that accommodation is available for their occupation. This is called the main housing duty. The accommodation a council provides until it can end this duty is called temporary accommodation. (Housing Act 1996, section 193)

Background

16. Miss X has been on the Council’s housing register since 2022.
17. In February 2024 the Council decided Miss X was eligible for housing assistance and accepted it owed her the main housing duty as she was homeless and in priority need.
18. In September 2024 Miss X and her child were living temporarily with a relative.

What happened

19. In September 2024 Miss X told the Council she was applying for a non-molestation order (NMO) against Z due to domestic abuse and asked if there was anything it could do to support her. It said it would look into her case.
20. The Council offered Miss X an appointment she was unable to attend. She said she was concerned about her safety when going out. She contacted the police about an incident of domestic abuse and told the Council. Later that month she asked her MP and Councillor for help getting a response from the Council.
21. Miss X was referred to the Council’s Move On Team in October 2024.The team support people living in temporary accommodation. Miss X had initial contact with them. She contacted them again in December as she had had no further contact.
22. In March 2025 Miss X contacted the police about an incident of domestic abuse.
23. In March 2025 Miss X made a complaint to the Council that it had failed to provide housing support and its communication was poor.
24. In April 2025 the Court issued a NMO against Z.
25. In May 2025 Miss X advised the Council’s Housing Register Team about the NMO. She contacted the Move On Team again to ask if she could move to another council area.
26. In May 2025 the Council provided a response using stage one of its complaints procedure. The Council acknowledged the distress and frustration the situation caused Miss X. It said it would review her case as a priority. It apologised her case had been overlooked by the Move on Team, said it had accepted the main housing duty and would look for suitable, likely temporary accommodation. It had no record of her contacting Housing Need since October 2024 and gave her that team’s contact information.
27. In June 2025 Miss X made a further complaint to the Council. She said she had contacted the Council by telephone and email since the stage one response but had received no support. She also emailed the Housing Options Team to ask if she could be referred to a housing association scheme for people moving due to domestic abuse.
28. In July 2025 Miss X contacted the Council’s Chief Executive. In response the Council said referrals to the housing association scheme had to be made through housing allocations or she could consider using Homefinder to move to another area. It said it recognised it had not responded in an appropriate manner and would learn for the future.
29. Miss X told the Council the housing association said it could refer her to the scheme. She said she could not use Homefinder as she could not move to another area of the country as she had local caring responsibilities.
30. In July 2025 Miss X emailed the Housing Register Team and added the NMO to her housing application. She contacted the Move On Team to say she had had no contact and her emails to her allocated worker were not being received.
31. Later in July 2025 the Council offered Miss X temporary accommodation in another council area which she accepted and moved to.
32. In September 2025 Miss X re-registered for housing with the Council. The Council told her she had been on the waiting list for a two-bedroom property since April 2022 and was on housing priority band 3. She requested a review of her housing band. The Council initially said she had no right to review, but the next day agreed to complete a review within 56 days.
33. Miss X told the Council the housing association asked her if she would like to bid for a property with them in another borough which she wanted to do. She was referred again to the Move On Team.
34. In September 2025 the Council provided a stage two complaint response. It apologised for the delayed response and accepted the delay in reviewing her case. It said it had apologised to her in the stage one response and said there was no information to show she had contacted housing needs as it had recommended.
35. The response said the Council had provided temporary accommodation, she had received housing advice from the Council’s Domestic Abuse Specialist and ongoing support was available. It said it was unable to facilitate a direct transfer to the housing association and did not uphold her complaint.
36. In November 2025 the Council apologised for the delay in reviewing her housing priority band.
37. In December 2025 Miss X complained about her housing priority band. The Council did not process the complaint as it said it was an appeal and she had already requested a review. It acknowledged the review was delayed.
38. Later in December 2025 Miss X made a successful bid on permanent accommodation in another council area. This meant the banding review was not completed. Miss X moved to the permanent accommodation in March 2026.

Findings

39. When Miss X went to the Council in September 2024 to ask for help there is no evidence it considered the suitability of her temporary accommodation until July 2025. This is fault. I am satisfied that, on the balance of probabilities, had the Council properly considered this it would have found her temporary accommodation was not suitable as she lived near to Z and continued to experience incidents of domestic abuse. This caused Miss X distress.
40. When, in July 2025, Miss X asked the Council if she could be referred to a housing association scheme for people moving due to domestic abuse it said referrals had to be made through housing allocations. The Council failed to give timely advice or support about how she could apply to the scheme or whether she might qualify. This is fault and caused Miss X frustration.
41. When, in September 2025 the Council told Miss X it would complete a review of her housing priority banding, it did not complete the review before Miss X was offered permanent accommodation at the end of December. This delay is fault and caused Miss X frustration.

Complaint handling

42. The Council has a two stage complaints procedure. It says it will usually respond to stage one complaints within ten working days and to stage two complaints within 20 working days. It says it will contact complainants if it needs more time to respond.
43. The Council took two months to respond to Miss X’s stage one complaint and three months to respond to at stage two and did not provide updates. This is fault and caused Miss X frustration.

Other investigations about this Council

44. During 2025 we investigated a number of complaints about this Council and its response to homelessness applications. We made recommendations to address areas including its duty to keep the suitability of temporary accommodation under review and respond to a change in circumstances, an action plan to address delays in review requests and actions to improve staff communication. The Council provided evidence of the actions taken to address the faults identified.
45. For this reason, I have decided not to include further service improvements in this decision. We will continue to monitor the Council’s performance through our casework.

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Agreed Action

46. Within one month of the final decision the Council has agreed to:
1. Apologise to Miss X for the distress and frustration caused to her by the Council’s failure to provide suitable temporary accommodation, its poor communication and delay in responding to her complaint. 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 the apology.
2. Pay Miss X £1800 to remedy the injustice caused by the Council’s failure to provide suitable temporary accommodation between September 2024 and July 2025.
47. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

48. I find fault causing injustice which the Council has agreed to remedy.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman