Summary: Mr B complains about how the Council has dealt with his family’s housing situation. The Council has not rehoused them and as a result they live in overcrowded housing that is not suitable for his mother’s disability. There was no fault by the Council. It has properly assessed the housing needs, but no suitable properties have become available.

The complaint

1. Mr B complains that the Council:
• Failed to offer him and his family suitable interim accommodation when they were made homeless in 2016;
• Failed to offer them an adapted property in 2017, despite knowing his tenancy was only temporary and despite that it had assured him it was adapting a property that would meet their needs;
• Failed to properly asses his current housing application dating from when they moved to their current house in June 2017; and
• Failed to offer his family accommodation that will meet his mother’s medical needs and that is large enough.
2. Mr B tells me that as a result, his family is living in unsuitable and overcrowded accommodation. He has been caused distress, frustration and given false assurances.

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What I have investigated

3. I have investigated the Council’s actions from February 2018, this is twelve months before Mr B complained to the Ombudsman. I have restricted the scope of my investigation to this date for the reasons set out below.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. 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)
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 considered the information provided by Mr B and discussed the issues with him. I considered the information provided by the Council including its file documents. I also considered the law and guidance set out below.
7. Both parties have had a draft of this statement and were invited to comment on this. The Council did not send me any comments and I have considered Mr B’s comments before issuing the final decision.

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What I found

The law and guidance

8. 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.
9. Someone is threatened with homelessness if, when asking for assistance from the Council before 3 April 2018, he or she is likely to become homeless within 28 days. (Housing Act 1996, section 175(4))
10. A council must secure interim accommodation for applicants and their household if it has reason to believe they may be homeless, eligible for assistance and have a priority need. (Housing Act 1996, section 188)

The Council’s housing allocation policy

11. The Council assesses housing applications in line with its policy. It places applications in one of three bands. Band one is for those who have an urgent need to move, who are statutorily overcrowded and whose home is having a serious adverse effect on their mental or physical health.

What happened

12. Mr B lives with his wife and disabled mother and his eight children aged 6, 9, 13, 16, 17, 19, 21, 27. His mother, Mrs Y, is bed-bound and cannot use the bathroom or toilet. They live in a private rented house with four bedrooms. In 2014, they applied to the Council for more suitable housing as there were not enough bedrooms and the property did not meet Mrs Y’s needs. The Council’s Occupational Therapist assessed the family’s housing need and recommended that they needed a property with ground floor shower and toilet facilities or a property with a lift to these facilities.
13. The Council placed the family in Band One with Category A need. The family would be able to bid on available six to eight-bedroom properties adapted for a disabled user. None became available.
14. In 2016, Mr B’s landlord served notice on the family to leave as he wanted to sell the property. Mr B was able to stay for slightly longer and then moved to another private rented house. The family lived there for six months but then had to move again because it was unaffordable.
15. In June 2017, the family moved back to the original property it had left nearly a year earlier. The Council assessed the family’s housing needs again. It placed the Council in Band Two, but later corrected this to Band One and backdated the family’s housing priority. The Council say that no suitable properties became available during this time, or since.
16. The Council’s Occupational Therapist assessed Mrs Y’s housing needs again in November 2018. I have seen a copy of the assessment. This says that Mrs Y’s mobility had deteriorated, she could not weight bear and needed a hoist to transfer with the help and care of her family. Mrs Y would also need a wheelchair accessible property as well as accessible washing facilities.
17. The Council has advised the family that a fully adapted property with six to eight bedrooms is unlikely to become available. It suggested that the older sons and daughters live elsewhere as a smaller property was more likely to become available. Mr B said that he wanted to keep the family together. One of his daughter’s did however move out and the Council adjusted the family’s needs to a five to six-bedroom property.
18. The Council has considered whether it could adapt a property and will liaise with adult social care if there was a suitable property. However, a suitably large property has not become vacant.
19. The Council accepts that the current property does not meet the family’s needs. However, the property is not so unsuitable that it can say the family are homeless.

Was there fault by the Council causing an injustice to Mr B and his family?

20. For the reasons set out below, I have investigated the Council’s actions from February 2018. This is after it moved back to its original privately rented tenancy and after the Council corrected its mistake on their housing application.
21. There was no fault by the Council in its actions since February 2018. It has correctly assessed Mr B’s housing needs and awarded the correct priority. It has suggested ways in which the family may increase its chances of being housed and has committed to considering adapting a property should one become available. It accepts that their current property is not ideal for Mrs Y, however, no properties large enough have become vacant. This is not fault by the Council.

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Final decision

22. Subject to further comments by Mr B and the Council, I intend to complete my investigation. There was no fault by the Council.

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Parts of the complaint that I did not investigate

23. 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)
24. I have spoken to Mr B about why he did not complain to the Ombudsman sooner. He said that the Council had assured him it would help and so he had not thought that he needed to complain to us. However, the events Mr B complains about date back many years and so it would have been apparent that the Council was not rehousing then family.
25. Mr B made further representations about this issue. He particularly wanted to complain that the Council did not put the family together in interim accommodation when he was made homeless in the late Spring and Summer of 2016.
26. I considered again whether I should exercise discretion to investigate these late complaints. However, it would have been clear in 2016 that the Council had not resolved the issue of interim accommodation to Mr B’s satisfaction and it was open to him to make a complaint about this even if he was still asking the Council to rehouse the family on a more permanent basis.
27. It was reasonable for Mr B to bring the complaint to the Ombudsman then and so, I have not exercised discretion to investigate earlier events. I have limited my investigation to events since February 2018.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman