Summary: The Council’s failure to review Ms X’s Personalised Housing Plan and failure to offer interim or temporary accommodation is fault. The Council has agreed to apologise, pay Mr X £1925, and take action to improve its service.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains that the Council has not dealt properly with his homelessness application. He also says the Council wrongly suspended his ability to bid on the Housing Register.
2. As a result, Mr X says he may have missed an offer of a property. He says he and his family, including his disabled child, remain in unsuitable accommodation.

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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. 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

5. I discussed the complaint with Mr X.
6. I made written enquiries of the Council and considered its response along with relevant law and guidance.
7. I referred to the Ombudsman’s Guidance on Remedies, a copy of which can be found on our website.
8. Ms X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

Homelessness Law and Guidance

9. 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.
10. Councils must complete an assessment if they are satisfied an applicant is homeless or threatened with homelessness. Councils must notify the applicant of the assessment. Councils should work with applicants to identify practical and reasonable steps for the council and the applicant to take to help the applicant keep or secure suitable accommodation. These steps should be tailored to the household, and follow from the findings of the assessment, and must be provided to the applicant in writing as their personalised housing plan. (Housing Act 1996, section 189A and Homelessness Code of Guidance paragraphs 11.6 and 11.18)
11. If councils are satisfied applicants are threatened with homelessness and eligible for assistance, they must help them to secure that accommodation does not stop being available for their occupation. This is called the prevention duty. In deciding what steps they are to take, councils must have regard to their assessments of the applicants’ cases. (Housing Act 1996, section 195)
12. If councils are satisfied applicants are homeless and eligible for assistance, they must take reasonable steps to secure accommodation. This is called the relief duty. When a council decides this duty has come to an end, it must notify the applicant in writing. (Housing Act 1996, section 189B)
13. 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)
14. 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 homelessness duty.  (Housing Act 1996, section 206 and (from 3 April 2018) Homelessness Code of Guidance 17.2)
15. If, at the end of the relief duty, a council is satisfied an applicant is homeless, eligible for assistance, and has a priority need the council has a duty to secure that accommodation is available for their occupation. This is called the main duty. (Housing Act 1996, section 193)
16. After completing inquiries, the council must give the applicant a decision in writing. If it is an adverse decision, the letter must fully explain the reasons.  All letters must include information about the right to request a review and the timescale for doing so. (Housing Act 1996, section 184, Homelessness Code of Guidance 18.32 and 18.33)

What happened

Homelessness

17. Mr X and his family live in a privately rented flat. One of Mr X’s children uses a wheelchair. An Occupational Therapist advised that the property, which is only accessed by a flight of stairs, is not suitable for wheelchair access.
18. In December 2018, the Council completed a homelessness assessment and decided Mr X was threatened with homelessness. It accepted the prevention duty and agreed a Personalised Housing Plan (PHP) with Mr X.
19. In May 2019, the Council accepted the relief duty. Usually, when a household with dependant children or another priority need becomes homeless, councils provide s188 interim accommodation. In this case, the Council says it offered Mr X such accommodation but that he said he would prefer to stay in the flat until the Council could offer permanent accommodation. The Council did not update the PHP.
20. In July 2019, the Council accepted the main duty. This means it accepted that Mr X and his family were homeless and that it had a duty to secure accommodation for them.
21. The Council must provide suitable Temporary Accommodation to households until it can discharge the main housing duty. In October 2020, the Council offered Mr X a property as Temporary Accommodation. Mr X refused the offer and a review by the Council found the offer was unsuitable.
22. In October 2020, the Council offered Mr X a privately rented property to discharge its main duty. The Council later withdrew this offer. This means the Council still owed Mr X a duty.
23. In January 2021, the Council made a further offer of accommodation to end its duty. Mr X also refused this offer and asked for a review. The review found that the offer was suitable and so the Council ended its duty to Mr X. Mr X has not, to my knowledge, exercised his right to challenge this finding in court.

Housing allocations

24. Mr X applied to the Council’s housing register in August 2018.
25. Mr X says the Council suspended his ability to bid for properties for several weeks and that as a result he missed out on offers of accommodation. An Occupational Therapy assessment from November 2020 records that Mr X could not bid due to his refusal of an offer of a property in October 2020.
26. The Council says it suspended Mr X’s application for a few days in January 2020 and again in January 2021. This is because Mr X failed to renew his application in line with the Council’s automated annual review process. He was also unable to bid for properties between 24 January and 27 January 2021 while the Council processed its offer of a property.

Complaint to the Council

27. Mr X complained to the Council in September 2020. The Council considered the complaint at stage 1 and stage 2 of its complaints procedure. The stage 2 investigation found:
• The letter it sent accepting the main housing duty was inaccurate and gave the impression it had found a suitable property.
• The Council did not update the PHP at any point
• The Council did not keep Mr X informed of what would happen next with his homeless application
• The Council failed to update records and notes on the application
• There were no records to show the Council had made any effort to find a suitable property despite accepting a duty.
28. As a remedy for these faults, the Council offered to pay Mr X £1475.
29. Mr X complained to the Ombudsman in January 2021.

My findings

Homelessness

30. The Council accepted a prevention duty in December 2018. The Council’s records show it did nothing until it accepted the relief duty in May. There is no evidence the Council contacted Mr X or took any action to prevent his homelessness. This is fault.
31. The Council accepted Mr X and his family were homeless in May 2019. The Code of Guidance says councils should update PHPs when there is a change of duty. The Council failed to update Mr X’s PHP. This is fault.
32. There is no evidence the Council offered Mr X s188 accommodation when it accepted the relief duty. The Council says it offered the accommodation but Mr X refused it. The Council has a legal duty to provide s188 interim accommodation. It should properly record any offers, refusals, or reasons not to provide it. The Council’s failure to do so is fault.
33. In the absence of proper records, I find it likely the Council did not offer Mr X s188 interim accommodation. This is an injustice to Mr X.
34. The Council accepted a main duty to Mr X in July 2019. There is no evidence it offered Mr X any Temporary Accommodation until October 2020, over a year later. The Council’s records do show that Mr X said in response to this offer that he would prefer to wait for an offer of permanent accommodation. However, Mr X also sought a review of the suitability of this offer, which was upheld.
35. The Council should have offered temporary accommodation in July 2019 and did not do so. The Council says Mr X preferred to remain in his current property until he got a permanent offer. If this was the case, the Council should have recorded its reasons for not offering temporary accommodation. Its failure to do so is fault.
36. I cannot say whether Mr X would have accepted any such offer in July 2019. He said he preferred to remain in his current property in November 2020. However, by then he had been waiting for over a year and other factors, including the Covid-19 pandemic, affected his decision. His disabled child and his wife’s health conditions mean they are particularly vulnerable to Covid-19. Mr X was concerned about the risks and difficulties posed by moving his family during this time. As well as the health risk, he was worried about being able to access suitable services, including the weekly physiotherapy his child needs, in a new area.
37. These factors were not present in July 2019, when the Council should have offered the accommodation. Mr X might have made a different decision had it done so. This uncertainty is an injustice to Mr X.

Housing allocations

38. Mr X says he could not bid for accommodation on the housing register for several weeks in October and November 2020.
39. The Council confirms that Mr X could not bid on the housing register for three weeks. It says it suspended Mr X’s ability to bid for accommodation in October 2020 when it made an offer of temporary accommodation, which he refused.
40. The Council says this is in line with its Allocations Policy, which says the Council may disregard a bid if:

“The applicant already has an outstanding offer of alternative accommodation.”

41. The Council says this policy applies to offers of temporary as well as permanent accommodation. The Council accepts that in Mr X’s case, it should not have suspended him from bidding. This is fault.
42. The Council provided evidence showing Mr X would not have finished higher than position 5 for any of the suitable properties it advertised in this period. Mr X did not miss out on an offer by not being able to bid for this period. Therefore, there is no injustice to Mr X from this fault.

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Agreed action

43. The Council accepted fault in how it handled Mr X’s homelessness in response to his stage 2 complaint. It found that as a result, Mr X was left in unsuitable accommodation. It offered to pay him £1475 as a remedy. I do not consider this to be a suitable remedy for the injustice caused.
44. The Ombudsman’s guidance on remedies recommends a payment of £150-350 for each month spent in unsuitable accommodation. The Council accepts that Mr X and his family spent more than a year in unsuitable accommodation. This is an injustice. To remedy the injustice, I recommend the Council:
• apologise to Mr X in writing.
• pay Mr X £200 a month for the period May 2019 to October 2020. This is £3400. Since the Council has already paid Mr X £1475, it should pay him a further £1925.
45. The Council has agreed to take this action within four weeks of my final decision.
46. The Council should also take the following action to improve its services:
• Remind relevant staff that Personalised Housing Plans must be kept under review and updated, as a minimum, with any change in duty
• Remind relevant staff of the importance of recording any discussion of and decisions about offers of interim and temporary accommodation.
47. The Council should tell the Ombudsman about the action it has taken within three months of my final decision.

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Final decision

48. I have completed my investigation. The Council is at fault. The action I have recommended is a suitable remedy for the injustice caused.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman