Summary

Mr and Mrs A complain about the way the Council handled their homeless application. They are also unhappy with the accommodation the Council arranged for them before and after the Council accepted the main housing duty.

The complaint

Mr and Mrs A complain about the Council's failure to help them until they approached the Council in person. They also complain about the way they were treated by the housing provider's son, Mr X, including complaints of harassment during an eviction. The couple also made complaints about the way the council delayed providing decisions in writing and failed to investigate their complaints properly.

Finding

The Ombudsman upheld the complaint and found fault causing injustice.

Recommendations

To remedy the injustice caused, the Council should:

• apologise to Mr and Mrs A for the fault identified;
• pay them £500 to reflect lost and broken belongings including a television;
• pay them £550 for the cost of Bed and Breakfast from 6 to 13 July 2015 (the Council has already agreed to do this);
• pay their removal and storage costs of £370;
• pay them £750 which reflects some of the cost of takeaway food for the two months the family was in the Bed and Breakfast after the eviction; and
• pay them £2,000 to reflect their avoidable distress.

Within three months of the date of this report, the Council should review and formalise its working relationship with Mr and Mrs X in writing to avoid recurrence of the fault identified and report back to us with an action plan.

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