Summary: Miss B complains the Council placed her in unsuitable accommodation when she was homeless. She says it is too small and she must share a bedroom with her twin daughters. I have not investigated this complaint further because there is no reason why Miss B did not use her right to go to court to resolve this.

The complaint

1. Miss B complains that the Council has given her temporary accommodation, but this is unsuitable because it is too small for the family.
2. Miss B lives with her twin daughters and her adult son. The maisonette has three bedrooms, but she says these are so small, that she shares a bedroom with her daughters and the clothes are stored in the third attic bedroom.

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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 an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A (1), as amended)
4. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
5. If we are satisfied with a council’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I have considered the information provided by Miss B and discussed the case with her. I have considered the law and the Council’s response to my enquries. I have considered the Council’s files documents and the planning documents the Council used when it reviewed its decision. Both parties have had the opportunity to comment on a draft of this statement. I have taken their comments into account before reaching a final decision.

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What I found

The law

7. Homeless applicants may request a review within 21 days of being notified of the decision on their homelessness application. There is also a right to request a review of the suitability of temporary accommodation provided once the Council has accepted the main homelessness duty. (Housing Act 1996, section 202)
8. If the applicant remains dissatisfied with the Council’s decision she can go to court on a point of law. A point of law may include a procedural fault or inadequate reasoning.

What happened

9. Miss B and her family were homeless. The Council accepted that it had a duty to rehouse her and it did this in a private tenancy. Miss B lives with her two daughters aged 12, and her adult son in a three-bedroom maisonette with a living room. The property is actually a house converted into two self-contained properties. Miss B’s property is the first floor and the attic room.
10. Miss B asked the Council to review whether this property is suitable for her family. In May 2018, the Council decided that the property was suitable for Miss B. It acknowledged that it was small but said that she was not overcrowded by law. It said that it had inspected the property before she moved in and took photographs of the rooms. The Council’s decision letter set out Miss B’s right to appeal to court. English is not Miss B’s first language, but the Council offers a translation service and details of this are included in the letter in a variety of common languages.
11. I have noted that the Council has not measured the size of the rooms to see if the property meets the legal standards; the planning documents do not show the conversion to separate dwellings; and the photographs give no indication of how big the rooms are.
12. Miss B complained to the Ombudsman. The Council says she has refused to allow it to visit her. However, she has asked me to tell the Council to visit her to see how small the rooms are. I have passed this request onto the Council, suggesting that they liaise directly.
13. Miss B has asked me to recommend the Council visit the property. She says she has not refused a visit. In fact, she wants the Council to visit her and I wrote to it in January of this year to pass on her request and suggested the Council liaise with Miss B directly.

Analysis

14. Miss B had the right to ask the court to decide if her property is suitable and we would usually expect complainants to use that right. I have considered whether it was reasonable to expect Miss B to use that right.
15. The Council dealt with her review request and set out in its decision letter her right of appeal to the court. It also offered to translate the letter into her first language to make sure she understood her rights. I appreciate that Miss B is living in difficult circumstances and that going to court may have been difficult, but there are no exceptional circumstances, different to other homeless applicants, that allow me to exercise discretion to investigate this complaint. For this reason, I have discontinued my investigation.

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Final decision

16. I have discontinued my investigation because it is outside the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman