Summary: Miss X complained the Council failed to provide suitable accommodation on accepting its homelessness duty and to review suitability. The Council says it reviewed suitability, agreed the property was not suitable and helped Miss X secure a more suitable home. We found the Council acted with fault. The Council failed without delay to move Miss X into suitable accommodation fulfilling its legal duty to do so. The Council has agreed to pay Miss X £1,800 for the time spent in unsuitable accommodation.

The complaint

1. The complainant whom I shall refer to as Miss X complains the Council failed to provide suitable temporary accommodation following her application for housing. Miss X says this left her and her daughter, Y, sharing a studio flat for longer than the Council promised, and she wants the Council to move her to more suitable accommodation.

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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. If 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)
4. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

5. In considering this complaint I have:
• Contacted Miss X and read the information presented with her complaint;
• Put enquiries to the Council and reviewed its responses;
• Researched the relevant law, guidance, and policy.
6. I shared my draft decision with Miss X and the Council and considered any comments received before reaching this my final decision.

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What I found

7. 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.
8. Someone is threatened with homelessness if, when asking for assistance from the Council on or after 3 April 2018:

• he or she is likely to become homeless within 56 days: or
• he or she has been served with a valid Section 21 notice which will expire within 56 days. [Housing Act 1996, section 175(4) & (5)]

9. If a council has ‘reason to believe’ someone may be homeless or threatened with homelessness, it must take a homelessness application and make inquiries. The threshold for taking an application is low. The person does not have to complete a specific form or approach a particular council department. (Housing Act 1996, section 184, and Homelessness Code of Guidance paragraphs 6.2 and 18.5) 
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)
11. If a council is satisfied someone is eligible, homeless, in priority need and unintentionally homeless it will owe them the main homelessness duty. Generally, the Council carries out the duty by arranging temporary accommodation until it makes a suitable offer of social housing or private rented accommodation. (Housing Act 1996, section 193)
12. 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)

What happened

13. In June 2018 Miss X had to leave her accommodation while pregnant with her daughter, Y. Miss X asked the Council for help. The Council offered her temporary accommodation in a studio flat to fulfil its relief duty in July 2018. Miss X says the Council told her she would remain in the studio flat for a short time probably no longer than eight months. Miss X says believing the Council would move her quickly she did not, at first, ask for a review of the temporary accommodation. However, she says since then she has asked at least three times for the Council to review its suitability.
14. On 28 July 2020 the Council told Miss X in a letter that it owed her the main homelessness duty under Section 193 of the Housing Act 1996. A copy of the letter, however, does not appear in its files and so I cannot say with certainty it was sent. The letter included information about Miss X’s right to ask for a review of her temporary accommodation’s suitability.
15. In January 2021 the Council assessed the suitability of Miss X’s temporary accommodation in the studio flat. It assessed the studio flat as unsuitable due to overcrowding and added Miss X to its list of applicants needing a transfer to suitable temporary accommodation in February 2021. The Council reviewed suitability in August 2021, and completed a Move On plan with Miss X. The Council reminded Miss X of her housing choices such as finding a home in the private sector via its Find Your Home scheme.
16. The Council helped secure a two-bedroom home found by Miss X and she moved into her new home in October 2021.
17. The Council says it allocated the studio flat to Miss X in 2018 because it met the minimum space standards for an adult and child as a temporary rather than a permanent home.

Analysis – was there fault leading to injustice?

18. My role is to decide if the Council acted without fault in its handling of Miss X’s homelessness application, the offer of temporary accommodation and review of that accommodation’s suitability. If it acted with fault, I must decide what it should do to remedy that.
19. The law does not allow me to decide what happened in July 2018. Without records of any conversation at the time I cannot now rely on the recollections of those involved about what they told Miss X about how long she would have to stay in the studio flat. However, I can look at what the Council has done to review suitability from 2020 until now.
20. When the Council accepted it owed the main homelessness duty in July 2020 the letter included a reference to the right to ask the Council to review the suitability of her current temporary accommodation. However, the files do not show a copy of the letter and we cannot say with certainty Miss X received it. By January 2021 Miss X had again asked for a review of the studio flat’s suitability. The Council agreed it was not suitable due to overcrowding. The Council completed a further suitability review when it agreed the Move on Plan in August 2021 and again found the studio flat unsuitable.
21. The Council helped Miss X secure her present suitable accommodation into which she moved in October 2021 and so it has achieved the result Miss X wanted when she made her complaint.
22. While the Council has helped secure a property, the law is clear. The Council has a duty to provide accommodation to homeless applicants which is suitable. It did not do so and I find that the Council acted with fault.
23. I find the Council at fault for the delay in carrying out a suitability review causing possible delay to Miss X’s finding more suitable temporary accommodation let alone a more permanent home.
24. The law says when a council finds a property is unsuitable then it is under a duty to provide suitable accommodation. Case law says that means finding suitable accommodation immediately. The courts have said the duty to provide suitable temporary accommodation is “immediate, unqualified and non-deferrable”. The Council did not find immediate suitable temporary accommodation following the review of suitability in January 2021 or August 2021. If Miss X had received the letter the Council cannot say it sent in July 2020, I have no doubt she would have asked for a suitability review. Suitability reviews should be completed within 56 days. Allowing for that time then the Council should have completed a review by October 2020, and again by March 2021. That means Miss X has lived in what the Council accepts was unsuitable property since at least October 2020. That caused significant injustice.
25. Under our “Guidance on Remedies” we try to place people in the position they would have been but for the fault identified. Where we cannot do that, we offer a symbolic payment reflecting the time spent in unsuitable accommodation which I have set within our scale at £150 per month. There are no aggravating factors that would allow me to recommend more. Therefore, I have recommended a remedy which reflects Miss X living in unsuitable accommodation for twelve months from the date the Council should have completed the suitability review.

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Agreed action

26. The Council helped Miss X secure a new suitable home and so provided the remedy she sought as well as discharging its homelessness duty.
27. However, that does not remedy the time she spent in unsuitable accommodation and therefore the Council agrees that within four weeks of my final decision it will:
• Send a written apology to Miss X for the delay in providing her with suitable temporary accommodation in line with the Council’s legal duty;
• Pay Miss X £1,800 for twelve months spent in unsuitable accommodation based on £150 per month;
• Share this decision with staff so they may review whether there are any other similarly affected homeless applicants living in unsuitable accommodation.

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Final decision

28. In completing my investigation, I find the Council at fault, and it has agreed to my recommendations for a remedy.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman