Summary: there was fault in the way the Council handled Miss X’s move to new temporary accommodation. There is no evidence that an officer told Miss X she could apply for a Discretionary Housing Payment when she asked for assistance with removal costs. The Council also took too long to deliver a mattress to the property. The Council has agreed to provide a suitable remedy for the injustice caused to Miss X.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains about the way the Council arranged a move to new temporary accommodation in September 2018.
2. She also complains about defects and disrepair in the temporary accommodation which caused damage to her personal belongings, and adversely affected her family’s health.

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What I have investigated

3. I have investigated the following parts of Miss X’s complaint:
1. She was given very short notice of the move;
2. The Council refused to reimburse her removal costs;
3. The Council did not inform her about her right to request a review of the suitability of the temporary accommodation;
4. There was a delay in providing a mattress for one bed;
5. The Council did not carry out a suitability assessment before it made this offer of accommodation.
4. I did not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the poor state of repair and defects in this accommodation, and the damage to her belongings and health, for the reasons given in paragraphs 73 and 74.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

5. 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)
6. We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has started court action about the matter. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
7. 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

8. I have spoken to Miss X and considered the information she provided. I made written enquiries to the Council and considered its response and evidence from the housing records.
9. I considered the relevant homelessness law and guidance and the Council’s policy on Discretionary Housing Payments.
10. I have written to Miss X and the Council with my draft decision and considered their comments.

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What I found

The Council’s legal duties – homelessness and Discretionary Housing Payments

11. Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996 (as amended) and the Homelessness Code of Guidance for Local Authorities set out councils’ powers and duties to people who are homeless, or threatened with homelessness.
12. If a council is satisfied someone is eligible, homeless, in priority need and unintentionally homeless, it owes them the main housing duty. Generally, the Council carries out this duty by arranging temporary accommodation until it can make a suitable offer of social housing or private rented accommodation. (Housing Act 1996, section 193)
13. The law says councils must ensure all accommodation provided to homeless applicants is suitable for the needs of the applicant and members of his or her household.  This duty applies to interim accommodation and accommodation provided under the main housing duty.  (Housing Act 1996, section 206 and (from 3 April 2018) Homelessness Code of Guidance 17.2)
14. When a council considers if accommodation is suitable for the applicant and household members, it must take account of factors including the location, the distance to children’s schools and the proximity and accessibility to local services, amenities and transport. (Homelessness (Suitability of Accommodation) Order 2012)
15. A homeless applicant has the right to request a review of the suitability of any accommodation the Council offers after it has accepted the main housing duty. Applicants can request a suitability review whether or not they accept the accommodation offered.
16. It is good practice, although not a legal requirement, for a council to inform an applicant of their right to request a review of suitability when they are offered temporary accommodation. This is recommended by the Code of Guidance and the Ombudsman encourages it as good practice.
17. Councils administer a scheme for Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP). They may award a DHP to someone who is entitled to Housing Benefit or Universal Credit to help meet housing costs. A DHP may be a regular payment or can be awarded for a one-off cost such as removal expenses. Each Council has a limited annual budget for DHPs. There is no legal entitlement to a payment – it is paid at the Council’s discretion.

What happened

18. The Council owes Miss X the main housing duty as an eligible homeless person in priority need. Miss X and her children have been in temporary accommodation in the Luton area for several years.
19. This complaint is about the temporary accommodation Miss X and her family occupied for seven months from mid-September 2018 until late April 2019. I shall refer to this accommodation as Property B. Miss X and her family have since moved to different temporary accommodation.
20. This investigation is not considering further complaints Miss X has made about the temporary accommodation she moved to in April 2019.

Complaint a)

21. In June 2018 the Council agreed to move Miss X and her family to temporary accommodation with four bedrooms. Miss X needed to move because her teenage daughter had returned to live with her and there was not enough bedroom space.
22. The Council offered Miss X Property B in mid-September 2018. The Council gave her 24 hours’ notice of the move which means Miss had very little time to pack her belongings and organise removals. Miss X was not working and received benefits. She did not have time to budget for the move.
23. The Council says an officer contacted Miss X about the offer the day before she signed the accommodation agreement for Property B. It does not have a record of this conversation. It did not send Miss X an offer letter. The Council says it cannot always give applicants much notice because properties often become available at very short notice.
24. Miss X signed the agreement for Property B on 14 September 2018 and her tenancy started on the same day.
25. The Council accepts Miss X did not get much notice of the move. But it says it did not end the agreement for her existing temporary accommodation until 24 September. She did not return the keys until 25 September so this effectively gave her ten days to organise and complete the move.

Analysis

26. Miss X had very short notice of her move to Property B. This gave her very little time to pack her belongings and organise the move. But the lack of notice was not fault. Temporary accommodation often becomes available at short notice and four bedroom properties are in short supply.
27. Miss X kept the keys to the old temporary accommodation until 25 September so she did not have to complete the move in one day.

Complaint b)

28. Miss X told me she used her benefits and borrowed money to pay for a van and two men to move her belongings to Property B. She paid £475 in cash. The Council refused to reimburse her and this caused financial hardship.
29. The Council has no legal duty under Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996 to provide financial assistance with removal expenses. However, the Council does have a duty to administer a separate scheme of Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP).
30. I have referred to the Council’s published DHP policy. It gives the Council wide discretion to help meet housing costs for someone who receives Housing Benefit or Universal Credit. The policy specifically refers to one-off payments to assist with removal expenses.
31. When it replied to my enquiries, the Council said it does not have a written policy on assisting homeless applicants with removal costs. It says it deals with requests on a case by case basis. It said it would not generally meet an applicant’s removal costs but will assist with storage of belongings when the person cannot protect them.
32. Miss X says she asked an officer on 13 September 2018 whether the Council could assist her with removals to Property B. She says the officer told her the Council would only help if she had no funds. The officer said she must use her benefits. The Council has confirmed Miss X spoke to an officer on that day but it has no record of the officer’s advice to Miss X.
33. As there is no written record, the Council cannot say whether the officer informed Miss X she could apply for assistance with removal costs through the DHP scheme or whether any other assistance was available from the Council.
34. In October 2018 Miss X made a complaint to the Council. Among other matters, she complained about the Council’s refusal to reimburse removal expenses.
35. The Council asked Miss X to submit receipts from the removals company she had used. Miss X had posted an advert for a “man and a van” on a social media site. In mid-November 2018 Miss X sent a handwritten note with the removal company’s business card to the Council.
36. The handwritten note is dated 14 September 2018. It says Miss X paid £475 for a van and two workers to move her belongings to Property B. It says the move took 5½ hours. The note is not on company headed notepaper. Miss X also provided a business card for the man and van. Miss X later provided a typed invoice which states she paid £475 in cash on the day of the move. This invoice is on plain paper.
37. The Council did not consider this evidence was sufficient to authorise a payment. In reply to Miss X’s Stage One complaint, it said the receipt was handwritten and not on company headed paper. In response to Miss X’s Stage Two complaint, it said it could not authorise payment without evidence of payment, such as a bank statement, or a letter headed invoice including the company’s details.
38. In response to my enquiries, the Council said it has a duty to protect public funds so it could not authorise a payment without satisfactory invoices or receipts.

Analysis

39. There is no duty under Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996 for the Council to have paid Miss X’s removal expenses when she moved to Property B. But it should have told her she could apply for a one-off payment under its Discretionary Housing Payments policy. Miss X says the officer did not mention a DHP and said she must use her benefits to pay for the move. This left Miss X short of money to meet her living expenses. The Council has no record of the advice the officer gave her.
40. As the move was arranged at such short notice, and there is no record that officers gave Miss X any advice about removal expenses and DHPs, Miss X simply did not know she could have applied for a DHP to meet this expense.
41. I understand the Council’s concerns about the quality of the evidence Miss X submitted. The £475 charge is not on a company invoice. As Miss X paid cash and borrowed money, she could not provide proof of payment. The Council contacted the man who did the move but he said he had ceased trading.
42. It is not in dispute that Miss X moved most of her belongings to Property B on 14 September 2018. As the Council cannot produce any evidence that the officer gave Miss X appropriate advice about DHPs and assistance with removal expenses on 13 September, Miss X may have missed out on financial assistance with removal costs. I have therefore recommended action the Council should take now to provide a remedy.

Complaint c)

43. Miss X says the Council did not inform her of her right to request a review when she was offered Property B.
44. Miss X raised the same issue in a previous complaint to the Ombudsman when she was living in different temporary accommodation. The Ombudsman upheld that complaint. He found the Council was at fault for failing to inform her of her right to request a review.
45. In response to the Ombudsman’s previous decision, the Council said in early September 2018:

“the relevant staff members have had training to ensure every person who moves into temporary accommodation is informed in writing of their right to a section 202 review on the suitability of the property, regardless of whether or not they have previously lived in temporary accommodation.”

46. Miss X was offered Property B six days after the Council sent us this statement. She was not notified in writing of her review rights.
47. Miss X did not request a review of the suitability of Property B.
48. In response to my enquiries on this complaint, the Council sent a copy of a factsheet on homelessness reviews. It says officers give this factsheet to every applicant now when they sign the agreement for temporary accommodation.
49. The factsheet explains the applicant’s right to request a review of the suitability of accommodation offered after the Council has accepted the main housing duty. It also includes information about the timescale and the review procedure.

Analysis

50. The Council was at fault because it did not notify Miss X in writing that she could ask for a suitability review. I am particularly concerned that this happened just six days after the Council had given the Ombudsman an assurance that all applicants would be informed of their review rights when they signed the temporary accommodation agreement.
51. However, on the particular facts of this case, I do not consider this fault caused injustice to Miss X. She already knew, from the Ombudsman’s decision on her previous complaint, that she could ask for a review of the suitability of temporary accommodation. She did not ask for a review of Property B’s suitability.
52. The Council’s homelessness review factsheet properly explains the review rights. Provided officers routinely give applicants this factsheet, they will then have appropriate information about their rights.

Complaint d)

53. The Council owns Property B and uses it as temporary accommodation for homeless households. It partly furnishes the property and provides a cooker, a fridge-freezer and beds for the household.
54. Miss X had to sleep on a double bed base without a mattress when she moved to Property B in September 2018.
55. The Council’s records show a double bed was delivered to Property B one day after Miss X’s tenancy started. But the mattress was not delivered until one month later.

Analysis

56. The delay in providing Miss X with a mattress for the double bed was fault. She suffered discomfort and inconvenience as a result. The Council has agreed to provide a suitable remedy for this part of the complaint.

Complaint e)

57. Miss X complained that Property B was more than five miles from her children’s school. She said she had to pay bus fares because there was no school bus serving the area.
58. The Council says it did not carry out a formal suitability assessment at the time it made this placement. That means there is no written record of how it considered the impact on the children’s education. It says officers would have considered the distance to the children’s school as part of the suitability assessment. In this case, it cannot provide any evidence that they did so.
59. The Council says Miss X did not qualify for financial assistance from the education service with the children’s travel costs from home to school on distance grounds.
60. Miss X’s children moved to a new school on 31 October 2018. The new school is just over half a mile from Property B and within walking distance.

Analysis

61. The Council’s failure to make a written record of the suitability assessment was fault. It means the Council cannot demonstrate it had considered whether Property B was suitable for Miss X and her family’s needs, including the distance between the property and her children’s school, before it made this offer.
62. Excluding the half term holiday, Miss X’s children had to travel to their old school for about six weeks after the family moved to Property B. Miss X incurred the extra expense of paying bus fares.
63. If the Council had done a suitability assessment before making this offer, it may still have decided Property B was suitable for the family’s assessed needs. The family needed to move to a property with more bedrooms after Miss X’s teenage daughter returned to live with her. Temporary accommodation with four bedrooms is in short supply. The fares and longer journey time to school was a short-term cost and inconvenience until the children got places in a new school closer to Property B. The Council would have had to weigh up all these factors when deciding whether the property was suitable for the family’s needs. We cannot say that the outcome would necessarily have been any different. For this reason, I do not consider we can conclude that the failure to do a suitability assessment caused injustice to Miss X. I have also taken into account that Miss X could have accepted the offer, and challenged the suitability of Property B, by using the review procedure, but she did not do so.
64. The Council should ensure officers make a written record of suitability assessments in future.

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Agreed action

65. The Council has agreed to take the following action within one month:

Complaint b)

66. It will consider whether to award Miss X a DHP for removal costs to Property B. As this is a discretionary payment, I cannot say the Council must pay a DHP or how much it should award. It will take into account the guidance on removal costs in its DHP policy and its usual practice when it agrees to move homeless applicants to alternative temporary accommodation.
67. It will check the evidence in its Housing Benefit records about Miss X’s income and benefits on 14 September 2018. If it needs Miss X to provide any further information, such as a bank statement to confirm she withdrew cash to pay for removals on 14 September 2018, it should ask her to submit that.
68. It will inform Miss X of its decision in writing and send the Ombudsman a copy of the letter.
69. It will ensure officers make a written record of any advice they give to homeless applicants about the availability of assistance with removal costs in future.

Complaint d)

70. It will pay Miss X £100 to recognise the discomfort she suffered because she spent one month sleeping on a bed without a mattress.

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Final decision

71. I have completed the investigation and found:

Complaint a) – no evidence of fault;

Complaint b) – fault causing injustice;

Complaint c) – fault but no injustice;

Complaint d) – fault causing injustice;

Complaint e) – fault but no injustice.

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Parts of the complaint that I did not investigate

72. Miss X has instructed solicitors to pursue a claim in the County Court against the Council seeking damages for disrepair, damage to her belongings and personal injury while she and family lived in Property B.
73. The Ombudsman cannot investigate a complaint which is the subject of Court proceedings.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman