Summary: Mr X complained that despite assuring him his possessions would be kept safe the Council failed to protect his property when he had to leave his emergency accommodation to travel to a funeral abroad. The Council’s lack of clarity regarding the storage of Mr X’s personal belongings and how he could prevent them being disposed of amounts to fault. This fault has caused Mr X an injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mr X complained that despite assuring him his possessions would be kept safe the Council failed to protect his property when he had to leave his emergency accommodation to travel to a funeral abroad.

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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 we are satisfied with an organisation’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

4. As part of the investigation, I have:
• considered the complaint and the documents provided by Mr X;
• made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided;
• discussed the issues with Mr X;
• Mr 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

5. The Council had accepted a homeless duty towards Mr X and had provided emergency accommodation. On 3 April 2021 Mr X emailed his housing officer to inform them he had travelled abroad following a family bereavement. The officer responded on 6 April 2021 and asked Mr X to confirm when he left and when he was planning on returning to the UK. The officer explained that if Mr X was not in the UK, they would need to discharge him from his current temporary accommodation and then re-house him on his return. They advised this was standard procedure and Mr X's possessions would be kept safe. Mr X did not respond.
6. The Council discharged Mr X’s emergency accommodation on 13 April 2021. The Council’s records state the officer was unable to contact Mr X by telephone and assumed he was still abroad. On the same day a housing association emailed Mr X regarding possible temporary accommodation and asked him to confirm when he would return to the UK. Mr X responded on 15 April 2021 and copied in the housing officer. He confirmed he intended to return on 3 May 2021.
7. The housing officer contacted Mr X on 27 April 2021 and confirmed the Council had discharged his emergency accommodation as he had not occupied it for so long. They asked Mr X to contact the Homeless Prevention Team when he arrived back in the UK. The officer also suggested Mr X contact the landlord of his previous accommodation regarding the possessions he had left behind.
8. Mr X advised the Council his initial flight was cancelled and he returned to the UK around 17 May 2021. The Council arranged emergency accommodation. The Council’s records show that Mr X was unhappy with the accommodation provided and that shortly after he returned to the UK he tested positive for COVID 19.
9. On 13 July 2021 Mr X contacted the Council to chase the return of his belongings which he had left at the previous emergency accommodation. The Council suggested Mr X contact the accommodation provider directly and provided their details. Mr X told the Council he had tried several times to contact the caretaker, but all of his calls went straight to voicemail. On 20 July 2021 Mr X visited the accommodation provider’s premises and was told they no longer had his belongings. The provider held the items for two weeks then disposed of them.
10. Mr X made a formal complaint about the Council’s failure to protect his property on 23 July 2021. He stated the missing possessions included important academic documents, books, clothes, and electrical items. Mr X asked the Council to find his possessions or pay for replacements. As the Council did not respond to Mr X’s complaint, he contacted the Ombudsman.
11. We referred the complaint back to the Council and asked it to respond under its complaints policy. The Council responded to Mr X’s complaint in November 2021. It did not uphold Mr X’s complaint. The Council noted that the licence agreement Mr X had signed for the emergency accommodation included the following clause:

“Neither the Council nor staff at the accommodation are responsible for any of your belongings. In the event of you leaving the accommodation without notice or the Council ending its duty to provide you with accommodation, it will be your responsibility to ensure the safety of your belongings. Failure to do so may result in their disposal by the proprietor of the accommodation. If you believe that your belongings are at risk of loss or damage in any of these circumstances, it is your responsibility to notify your Housing Advisor immediately.”

12. The Council considered the primary liability for the loss of Mr X’s belongings rested with the accommodation provider and that the Council had advised Mr X to contact them directly. It also noted that Mr X was aware at the time he moved to the accommodation that the Council would not be responsible for his belongings should he leave the accommodation. The Council considered Mr X had had reasonable time and opportunity to communicate directly with the provider and or his housing officer to ensure his possessions were not placed at risk.
13. As a gesture of goodwill the Council offered to pay Mr X £200 in recognition of his circumstances.
14. Mr X was not satisfied by the Council’s response and asked for his complaint to be considered further. The Council responded in late January 2022 and maintained it was unable to uphold Mr X’s complaint. The Council acknowledged the housing officer had told Mr X his belongings would be kept safe, but states this was on the basis Mr X would be back in the UK soon. It noted Mr X did not respond to the officer’s request for a return date. It was satisfied Mr X would have been aware on 13 April 2021 that his accommodation had been discharged, and that the officer had advised Mr X to contact the provider directly regarding his possessions.
15. Although Mr X complained he had been unable to contact the caretaker, the Council noted he had not said when he had attempted this contact. Mr had not informed the housing officer, either while he was abroad, or on his return to the UK in mid May 2021 that he was having difficulty retrieving his possessions. The Council asserted that until Mr X mentioned this on 13 July 2021, it was reasonable for the Council to assume that, in accordance with the licence agreement, he had not left anything at the accommodation.
16. The Council did however apologise for the delay in responding to his original complaint, which it acknowledged was unacceptable and significantly outside its normal response times. The Council had implemented changes so that such delays would not happen again.
17. As Mr X remains dissatisfied with the Council’s response, he has asked the Ombudsman to investigate his concerns. Mr X asserted that while the licence required him to remove his personal belongings if he ceased to occupy the accommodation, it also stated:

“ If you cease to occupy the accommodation in any of the circumstances set out in condition 11 above, but leave any of your personal belongings in the accommodation, the Licensor will issue you with a notice requiring you to remove these belongings within a period of not less than seven days from the date of the notice.”

18. It goes on to state:

“If you wish to keep your belongings but are unable to make arrangements to remove them from the accommodation by the deadline set out in the notice, you must advise your Housing Advisor or another member of staff from the Housing Options Service of any difficulties that you are experiencing by the deadline in order to discuss alternative arrangements for the removal and storage of your belongings. If you do not do this, and if you do not remove your belongings by the deadline, it will be assumed that you no longer wish to keep these belongings and that you consent to the Licensor disposing of them".

19. Mr X asserts he informed the Council of his absence and was assured his belongings would be kept safe. He states he also informed the Council of the difficulties he encountered abroad and arranged to recover his belonging as soon as he came back to the UK.
20. In response to my enquiries the Council has reiterated that the accommodation welcome pack and booking letter/ licence clearly set out the obligations for possessions. Responsibility for personal belongings sits with the client. It states it held Mr X’s room open for 10 days and on the date it discharged it, the Council emailed Mr X and advised him to contact the provider to discuss his belongings. The Council states the welcome pack includes a range of phone numbers and email addresses that Mr X could have used to contact the accommodation provider.
21. The Council has confirmed there are no records of the accommodation provider issuing Mr X with a notice requiring him to remove his possessions. Nor are there any records of how Mr X’s possessions were disposed of. The Council acknowledges the accommodation provider should have kept a record of Mr X’s personal belongings which were disposed of.
22. The Council considers it acted with compassion, flexibility and sensitivity around Mr X’s situation and communicated effectively with him about his belongings. It considers the goodwill gesture of £200 for the loss of his belongings to be fair and reasonable.

Analysis

23. I consider there was a lack of clarity regarding the storage of Mr X’s personal belongings which amounts to fault. While the licence states that neither the Council nor the accommodation staff are responsible for Mr X’s belongings, the housing officer’s email of 6 April 2021 clearly states Mr X’s possessions would be kept safe. Mr X was entitled to rely on this assurance.
24. If the Council intended this to be a short term measure and anticipated Mr X would return to the UK within a week or so, I would have expected it to make this clear. The Council discharged Mr X’s accommodation on 13 April 2021, but the housing officer did not contact Mr X until 27 April 2021. The officer suggested Mr X contact the accommodation provider regarding his belongings but did not indicate there was any urgency or advise that Mr X’s belongings would be disposed of if he did not.
25. It is unclear when and how the accommodation provider disposed of Mr X’s belongings. It is possible that the provider had disposed of Mr X’s belongings before the housing officer’s email to Mr X of 27 April 2021.
26. However, it is also unclear when Mr X began contacting the accommodation provider regarding his belongings. Mr X’s emails to the Council in May 2021 do not refer to any difficulties contacting the provider, so it is possible he had not yet attempted to recover his possessions. Given the importance Mr X states the items he had left at the accommodation had to him, I would have expected him to seek to recover them as quickly as possible.
27. I recognise Mr X tested positive for COVID-19 and had to isolate on his return to the UK so could not have physically retrieved his possessions but he would still have been able to call and email both the provider and the Council to try and locate them. Mr X would also have been able to email the provider and or the Council regarding his possessions from abroad.
28. I consider the Council’s fault has caused Mr X an injustice. Mr X asserts he will have to travel abroad to obtain replacement copies of his academic records and that this will be time consuming and expensive. He estimates the cost to be around £5000 and believes the Council should bear this cost. I do not consider this to be appropriate.
29. There is no itemised record of the possessions Mr X left in the accommodation so it is not possible to confirm the extent of Mr X’s losses. In the circumstances I consider the Council’s offer of £200 to be appropriate.

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Agreed action

30. The Council has agreed to apologise and pay Mr X £200 in recognition of the frustration and difficulties the lack of clarity regarding how long the Council or the accommodation provider would store Mr X’s belongings, and the action he would need to take to prevent them being disposed of have caused.
31. The Council should take this action within one month of the final decision on this complaint.

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Final decision

32. The Council’s lack of clarity regarding the storage of Mr X’s personal belongings and the action he would need to take to prevent them being disposed of amounts to fault. This fault has caused Mr X an injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman