Summary: Ms B complained that the Council placed her in temporary accommodation which was infested with bedbugs. We found the Council was at fault in failing to treat the room when a previous tenant reported an infestation. However, the next tenant did not report any issues so there are no grounds to criticise the Council for placing Ms B in the property. We also found the Council was at fault in failing to carry out a follow-up treatment within a reasonable time after treating the room in July 2020 and in informing Ms B that its pest control service was chargeable. The Council has agreed to apologise to Ms B and refund the payment she made to her own pest control contractors.

The complaint

1. Ms B complains that she was placed in temporary accommodation in November 2019 which was infested with bedbugs and this problem is ongoing. As a result, she has suffered bites and her possessions have been infested. She has also been put to inconvenience and the expense of employing a pest control contractor to treat the property.

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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)
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. I have considered all the information provided by Ms B, made enquiries of the Council and considered its comments and the documents it provided.
6. Ms B and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered the comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

Key facts

7. Ms B was provided with temporary accommodation by the Council in November 2019. She began experiencing problems with bedbugs but says it was some time before she realised what the cause of the problem was. She says she had a new bed within a month of moving into the property which meant the infestation seemed to have disappeared until the bedbugs travelled from within the property and infested the new bed.
8. In March 2020 Ms B moved in with her mother because of COVID-19 restrictions. She did not visit the property until July 2020 because she was in her mother’s support bubble.
9. When Ms B visited the property in July 2020, another tenant was receiving treatment for bedbugs. Ms B asked the contractor to treat her bedsit because she also had an infestation. The contractor contacted the Council and it agreed to the room being treated. The contractor treated Ms B’s room that day. The Council says the contractor also treated the communal areas of the building. However, Ms B disputes this.
10. The same day Ms B complained to the Council about the infestation saying she had discovered that, in August 2018, an order for bedbug treatment was raised for the room but a week later this was cancelled and the bedsit was declared ‘void’. She said the room was empty for 10 months so the infestation was dormant but still present.
11. The Council responded at stage 1 of its complaints procedure. It explained the bedsit had been occupied between November 2018 and October 2019 and the tenant had reported no issues.
12. Ms B complained to the Council again on 5 August 2020. She sent evidence of the infestation and asked the Council for help.
13. Ms B escalated her original complaint to stage 2. The Council responded on 26 August 2020 saying reasonable efforts had been made to address the problem, including specialist treatment by pest control contractors.
14. In August 2020 Ms B stopped visiting the property again as she was staying with her mother and fulfilling caring responsibilities.
15. Ms B escalated her complaint to stage 3 in October 2020. The Council did not uphold her complaint and referred her to the Ombudsman. However, Ms B did not pursue the matter at the time because she suffered a close family bereavement.
16. The Council says it scheduled a follow-up treatment for February 2021 but Ms B cancelled this. Ms B denies cancelling any visits.
17. Ms B returned to live in the bedsit around April 2021.
18. The Council says that, in June 2021, the pest control team contacted Ms B by text message asking whether the service was still required but she did not respond. So, it closed the matter in August 2021.
19. In February 2022 Ms B contacted the Council’s pest control team enquiring about treatment for bedbugs. It responded explaining this was a chargeable service and listed the charges.
20. In March 2022 Ms B again complained to the Council saying it was aware the property was infested with bedbugs when she moved in. The Council instructed pest control contractors to “inspect for presence of bedbugs and treat if required”. It says the contractors attempted to visit but Ms B refused access.
21. On 17 March the Council sent an email to Ms B saying it had instructed pest control contractors to visit to check whether there was an active bedbug infestation and, if required, carry out treatment. But they had not been able to contact her. It asked her to contact the contractors. Ms B did so on 4 April and it was agreed she would contact them again when she was in a position to proceed with the treatment.
22. The Council responded to Ms B’s complaint on 13 April saying that, when void works were carried out in 2018, the bedsit underwent a full empty property inspection and was fit to let. It was then occupied by another tenant for nearly 12 months, and they reported no issues. When that tenant moved out, the Council again completed necessary repairs and assessed the property for suitability. It said there was no active infestation at that time.
23. On 20 April the pest control contractors contacted the Council saying Ms B had told them there were works going on in the property and she was not able to provide access to complete a treatment. The Council asked the contractors to contact Ms B again.
24. On 6 May the contractors contacted the Council again saying they had spoken to Ms B and she could see no point in them visiting until her complaint had been resolved. They said the issue appeared to be that she was not able to prepare the room ready for treatment. Ms B has explained that she could not afford to wash all her clothes at the launderette and buy a new bed to prepare the room for treatment.
25. The Council said it would still like the contractors to visit to confirm if bedbugs were present. It said it would tell Ms B she must provide access and, if bedbugs were present, it would see what help it could offer to prepare the room ahead of treatment. It sent an email to Ms B asking her to allow the contractors access so they could ascertain whether there was a current bedbug issue. If so, the next stage would be a two-part treatment. It said “you mentioned you not able [sic] to prepare the property ahead of treatment… We can see if there is any help we can offer with this but the first step is to ascertain if there is a problem and its scale”. The Council asked Ms B to telephone the contractors to arrange an initial visit.
26. On 9 May Ms B’s own pest control contractor completed an inspection and prepared a report saying they had found signs of bed bug activity including live bedbugs.
27. On 13 May the Council’s contractors told the Council they had spoken to Ms B and she had told them there was no need to visit as she had already instructed another pest control company.
28. Ms B sent an email to the Council in June asking it not to book another appointment with the contractors until the treatments provided by her own pest control company were completed.
29. The Council says it remains willing to treat the bedsit if Ms B wishes.

Analysis

30. Ms B did not complain to us in October 2020 when the Council first signposted her to the Ombudsman because of a close family bereavement. So, I have exercised my discretion to investigate matters which took place more than 12 months before she complained to us.
31. Ms B says the Council was made aware of the bedbug infestation by a previous tenant in August 2018 and a job was raised to complete works. However, the works were never completed. She says the bedsit was then vacant until she moved in.
32. The Council has explained that the treatment arranged for August 2018 was not completed because the tenant died. The bedsit became vacant and the Council decided to address the bedbug infestation as part of the void works. However, it has provided no evidence that any treatment for bedbugs was carried out as part of the void works.
33. I find the Council was at fault in failing to treat the bedbug infestation as part of the void works. However, I cannot conclude that the failure to do so resulted in the infestation Ms B reported in July 2020. The Council has provided evidence that another tenant lived in the bedsit between November 2018 and October 2019 and did not report any problems. So, there are no grounds to criticise the Council for placing Ms B in the bedsit in November 2019.
34. I find that, although the Council acted on Ms B’s request for a treatment in July 2020, this treatment was unlikely to be successful because Ms B had no opportunity to prepare the room before the treatment was carried out. Although the Council was trying to be helpful in agreeing to Ms B’s request to treat the room, it should have scheduled a date for the treatment and explained to Ms B that she needed to prepare the room beforehand. In addition, the Council should have offered a follow-up treatment shortly afterwards and not left this until February 2021, some six months later. This was fault.
35. Ms B says she complained to the Council again in August 2020 because no follow-up treatment had been arranged. She sent evidence of the infestation and asked the Council for help. Ms B says the council did not respond to this email. However, on 26 August 2020 the Council sent a stage 2 response to Ms B’s complaint setting out its view that reasonable efforts had been made to address the problem. I do not therefore criticise the Council for failing to specifically respond to Ms B’s separate complaint of August 2020 as this was about the same matter. However, as explained above, I consider the Council should have offered to carry out a follow-up treatment much sooner than it did.
36. The Council’s pest control team says it scheduled a follow-up treatment for 1 February but Ms B cancelled the visit. It says the visit was rescheduled for 3 February but she cancelled this also. Ms B denies cancelling any appointments. This is essentially a matter of Ms B’s word against that of officers. There is no contemporaneous written record but only information provided by the pest control team and Ms B over a year later. I cannot reach a safe conclusion about precisely what happened in the absence of tangible evidence.
37. The Council says the contractor sent a text message to Ms B in June 2021 asking whether the service was still required and, as she did not respond, the matter was closed. Ms B says the Council has never contacted her by text. She says the contractors were unable to contact her because the Council gave them her old telephone number which she had not used for years. She says she told the Council this several times and provided her current telephone number. She has provided a copy of an email she sent to the Council on 30 May 2022 in which she said the Council kept providing the contractors with an invalid telephone number but “there has been occasions, including recently-where the Council has called me on the correct phone number. So it is obvious that you do have my correct phone number”.
38. The Council has provided details of the telephone number it gave to the contractors. This is not the number Ms B quoted in her email of 30 May 2022. The Council has also provided copies of two work orders which refer to the incorrect telephone number. This evidence supports Ms B’s view that the contractors were attempting to contact her using the wrong telephone number on occasions. However, she says in her email of 30 May 2022 that sometimes the Council was using the correct phone number.
39. Failure to consistently use the correct contact telephone number was fault and may have meant that Ms B missed important contact from the Council or its contractors. I cannot say whether the text message sent to Ms B in June 2021 was sent to the correct number or not. This causes Ms B uncertainty about whether she missed this important contact. However, it was open to her to contact the Council herself if she wanted further treatment carried out after July 2020 and she did not do so until February 2022.
40. Ms B says the Council told her she had to pay for pest control treatments, so she arranged her own contractor. Ms B completed an online complaint form on 26 February 2022. In answer to the question ‘What service/issue are you contacting us about?’ Ms B wrote ‘pest control’. She explained she was moved into temporary accommodation in November 2019 which was infested with bedbugs. She explained the impact this has had on her and said she had complained to the Council about this in August 2020. The following day the Council responded by email saying “Thank you for your enquiry dated February 26, 2022, regarding our treatment for Bed Bugs. The Council’s Pest Control Team does provide a service to treat for Bed Bugs but it is a chargeable one. Our charges are set out below”.
41. As Ms B clearly explained that she was seeking treatment for a bedbug infestation in temporary accommodation, the Council should have arranged free treatment. The Council was at fault in telling her the service was chargeable. In reliance on this information, Ms B instructed her own pest control contractors and incurred costs in doing so.
42. I am satisfied the Council acted appropriately by trying to inspect the property and carry out treatments when Ms B complained in March 2022. It also offered to help her prepare the room. Ms B says there was no need for the Council to complete an inspection as it was already aware of the bedbugs from the previous visit in 2020. But, given that a considerable amount of time had passed, the Council was entitled to check whether the infestation was still an issue before completing a treatment. The evidence is that Ms B spoke to the contractors in April 2022 and declined treatment. She also declined treatment in May and June 2022 because she was not able to prepare the room. Ms B accepts this.

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Agreed action

43. The Council has agreed that, within one month, it will:
• send a written apology to Ms B for the fault identified;
• offer Ms B a further pest control treatment;
• refund the sum of £216 that Ms B paid to instruct her own pest control contractors; and
• amend its records to remove the incorrect telephone number.

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Final decision

44. I find the Council was at fault in failing to treat the property in August 2018, but I do not consider this caused Ms B an injustice.
45. I find the Council was at fault in:
• failing to carry out a follow-up treatment within a reasonable time after the treatment in July 2020;
• incorrectly informing Ms B that its pest control service would be chargeable; and
• providing its contractors with an incorrect telephone number for Ms B.
46. I have completed my investigation on the basis that the Council has agreed to implement the recommended remedy.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman