Summary: Ms X complained the Council did not deal properly with disrepair in her temporary accommodation, or with her concerns about the accommodation being overcrowded and unaffordable. As a result, Ms X states she and her family experienced inadequate living conditions, inconvenience and financial hardship. There was fault by the Council that has caused injustice to Ms X. The Council will apologise to Ms X and make a payment.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council did not deal properly with disrepair in her temporary accommodation, or with her concerns about the accommodation being overcrowded and unaffordable. As a result, Ms X states she and her family experienced inadequate living conditions, inconvenience and financial hardship.

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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 an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
3. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
4. When considering complaints, if there is a conflict of evidence, we make findings based on the balance of probabilities. This means that we will weigh up the available relevant evidence and base our findings on what we think was more likely to have happened.
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 complaint and documents provided by Ms X and spoke to her. I asked the Council to comment on the complaint and provide information. I also asked the Authority where the property is located to provide information. I sent a draft of this statement to Ms X and the Council and considered their comments.

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What I found

Summary of events

7. Before the events related to this complaint, the Council had accepted a homelessness duty to Ms X and her family due to domestic violence. The Council arranged temporary accommodation outside its area, in the area of Authority Z.
8. In early 2017 Ms X emailed the Council with an update about her housing situation. She said her grown up son had moved out and that the property was covered in mould which she had reported to the landlord. The Council has a record of further contact from Ms X in October and December that year. She again reported damp and mould in the property which was affecting her son who had a cough. She also mentioned the kitchen door had been broken for months.
9. There is no record of the Council taking any action in response to these reports.
10. The Council has a record of contacting Ms X to carry out a review of the suitability of the property in July 2018. There is no explanation of what prompted this. The Council said it sent Ms X a letter following this up. It has not provided me with a copy of the letter. There was a visit to Ms X at the end of the month, I am not clear what the purpose of the visit was, but there is an internal email saying Ms X had reported ongoing disrepair at the meeting.
11. In early September Ms X emailed the Council detailing the problems she was experiencing in the property. The Council acknowledged the email and said it was being passed to an officer so they could raise it with the managing agents. There is no record of the Council contacting the agents.
12. In October Authority Z, where the property is located, became involved. An officer visited the property and identified work needed to be done. This included some of the matters Ms X had already mentioned but did not make any mention of mould or damp.
13. At the same time Ms X complained to us. We told her she should make the complaint to the Council.
14. At the beginning of 2019 Ms X submitted a change of circumstances form to the Council. This detailed that her two adult sons were living in the property and her two younger children. On the accompanying medical information form Ms X explained she was sleeping on the sofa because a vent from the loft into the bedroom was causing her breathing difficulties. The Council referred that to its medical advisers who said the dust problem from the vent should be managed in the normal way and there were no specific housing needs.
15. In February Ms X approached us again. We recognised she had had some contact with the Council but we did not consider the Council had had chance to formally consider the complaint so we referred it back to them. At this same time Ms X had an interview with the Council. The Council explained the property was high cost (to the Council) so it would move her to other temporary accommodation when it became available.
16. At the end of February the Council replied to Ms X’s complaint. It offered to inspect the property to look at the reported disrepair. Ms X was unhappy with this as the repairs had largely been carried out by this point because of the involvement of Authority Z. When the officer did inspect she considered that any damp or mould was caused by condensation and there were no other issues.
17. Ms X was not satisfied and asked that her complaint be escalated to the next stage. She said the issues with the vent had not been resolved, that the Council had ignored her complaints about the property and the Council’s records of who were living in the property were not accurate.
18. The Council replied two months later. Among other things it told Ms X that she could apply for a review of the suitability of the accommodation as she was finding it too expensive. It also said it would refer the matter to the relevant team to look to see whether cheaper temporary accommodation could be found.
19. Two months later Ms X made a request for her complaint to be considered at stage three of the Council’s complaint process. The Council’s response in July was that it would formally consider the suitability of the property which, it considered, would address all the points she had raised.
20. In September the Council wrote to Ms X saying it was minded to consider that the property was suitable for her. Ms X immediately challenged the Council’s position but at the same time the Council offered Ms X a property. This was not further temporary accommodation but a permanent offer which would end the Council’s duty to Ms X as a homeless person. Ms X said the property was unsuitable because of its location which the Council accepted. In October Ms X agreed to the closure of the suitability review because she did not want a further offer of temporary accommodation and the Council had agreed to offer her the next suitable property. In the middle of November the Council made a further offer of permanent accommodation which Ms X accepted.

Analysis

Disrepair

21. 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. (Housing Act 1996, section 206 and (from 3 April 2018) Homelessness Code of Guidance 17.2)
22. There is 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)
23. It is clear Ms X told the Council of outstanding repairs needed to the property over 2017. The Council has no record of taking any action. There was further contact with her in the summer of 2018 where again disrepair is raised but again there is no apparent action by the Council. It was only because of the involvement of Authority Z that the repairs were resolved.
24. It was wrong the Council took no action on the reports Ms X made of disrepair. When Authority Z inspected the property it identified a significant number of repairs needed and ensured they were completed. The Council’s failure to act meant Ms X was living in property that needed repair for longer than she should. Ms X’s first report in January 2017 was of mould, by summer 2018 she was reporting some of the issues that Authority Z lists in its inspection in November that year.
25. The Council should make a payment to Ms X as its failure to act contributed to the delay in the repairs being completed. A main issue for Ms X was the damp and mould and dust from the vent from the loft. But the inspection by Authority Z did not identify these as issues so there was no failing by the Council in respect of these issues.

Overcrowding

26. One of Ms X’s adult children was not always resident in the property. When he was resident the Council said he could not be counted as part of her household. Her youngest child was not included as part of her household but the Council did correct that.
27. The information I have had from the Council on this point is confusing and there appears to be fault in not having Ms X’s youngest son recorded as part of her household. But this is not of any consequence as it did not make any practical difference to Ms X’s position. There was no fault in the Council’s position in respect of her oldest son.

Affordability

28. As early as January 2017 Ms X was saying the property was not affordable. If a property is not affordable then it is not suitable and that can be considered by the Council carrying out a suitability review. The Council did this in response to Ms X’s complaint but this was not until the summer of 2019. It appears the Council tried to carry out a suitability review in the summer of 2018 but the information I have about this is scant and I cannot be certain as to exactly what happened. But the Council should have acted sooner in response to the comments Ms X was making about the affordability of the property.
29. I cannot say what the outcome of any such review would have been. I have considered the review the Council did carry out in 2019 but I can give this little weight. There are errors in the letter about which children were resident in the property and in the reports of an incident between Ms X and one of her grown up sons. Also the section on affordability says the rent account is not set up but that Ms X would be entitled to housing benefit as she was at her previous property. It says there was an affordability check before Ms X moved in and she would not have been placed in a property that was not affordable.
30. Ms X had moved into the property over four years earlier. Whether it was affordable then would not be relevant to the current position if Ms X’s circumstances had changed. This indicates the Council did not carry out a proper assessment of Ms X’s current circumstances.
31. However even if the review had been successful it would have meant a move to alternative temporary accommodation. Ms X decided not to continue with the suitability review and to wait for an offer of permanent accommodation. But the failure to carry out a suitability review sooner has caused some injustice to Ms X. She did not have a proper assessment of whether there may be suitable cheaper temporary accommodation and the Council should make a payment to Ms X in recognition of that injustice.

Consideration of Ms X’s medical needs

32. Ms X considers the mould, damp and dust caused or exacerbated her existing respiratory problems. The Council’s medical adviser’s comments are brief and only refer to dust. But, as I say above, the reported issues about damp and mould and the problems from the vent were not identified by Authority Z. I cannot, therefore, say this was a significant issue that was not addressed by the Council.
33. However this would have been something that could, and should, have been more thoroughly addressed as part of a suitability review.

Agreed action

34. The Council will apologise to Ms X for the failings I have identified above and pay £500 which can be off-set against her rent arrears. It should do so within a month of the final decision.

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Final decision

35. There was fault by the Council that has caused injustice to Ms X. The Council should apologise to Ms X and make a payment.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman