London Borough of Newham (22 006 971)
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: Mr X complained about the way the Council dealt with his family’s housing situation following their move to temporary accommodation in February 2018. He said the Council did not advise him that he needed to apply to the housing register. And that it did not properly consider how many people are living in the property because it did not record the details of the birth of his second child. He said the property is unsuitable for them and they have not been considered for permanent housing, or more suitable temporary accommodation. He has also complained about the condition of the property. He said that as a result the family have lived in unsuitable accommodation for longer than they should. There was fault by the Council which caused injustice to Mr X. The Council will make a payment to remedy the injustice and apologise.
The complaint
- I refer to the complainant as Mr X. He complained about the way the Council dealt with his family’s housing situation following their move to temporary accommodation in February 2018. He said the Council did not advise him that he needed to apply to the housing register. And that it did not properly consider how many people are living in the property because it did not record the details of the birth of his second child. He said the property is unsuitable for them and they have not been considered for permanent housing, or more suitable temporary accommodation. He has also complained about the condition of the property. He said that as a result the family have lived in unsuitable accommodation for longer than they should.
What I have investigated and have not investigated
- I have investigated events since 2018 as Mr X was unaware anything may have gone wrong until his contact with the Council in 2022.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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)
- 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)
- 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)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered the complaint and documents provided by Mr X and spoke to him and his wife, Mrs X. I asked the Council to comment on the complaint and provide information. Mr X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.
What I found
Summary of the key events
- Mr X, his wife and two children live in a one bedroom property. They moved there in early 2018 as temporary accommodation as the Council had accepted it had the full housing duty to them following Mr X’s application as homeless.
- Mr X’s second child was born in 2019.
- In March 2022 Mr X went to the Council reporting disrepair at the property and in June he complained to the Council about his housing situation and that the property was unsuitable for his family.
- The Council responded to his complaint at stage one and two of its complaints process. Mr X was not satisfied with the response so complained to us.
Applying to the housing register
- For Mr X to be considered for social housing he needed to make an application to the housing register. He did not do this in 2018 when the Council accepted it had the full housing duty to him as a homeless family. Mr X said he did not know he needed to do so. However a letter to him in November 2018, which explained the Council’s duties to him, referred to needing to join the housing register and how to do that. I cannot, therefore, say there was any fault by the Council.
- After Mr X moved in to the temporary accommodation he said he had contact with his caseworker. She did not refer to the need to join the housing register. The Council has no record of any contact from Mr X over the intervening years. But Mr X provided copies of contact with the officer in November 2019 and August 2020. It is fault the Council’s records do not accurately show all the contact with Mr X. However I cannot say the Council should have done more to inform him about the need to join the housing register. He had been informed of that when it first accepted the housing duty to him and there is no evidence to show he was misinformed in any way in later contacts with the Council.
Including second child on application
- The information Mr X provided showed he informed the Council in November 2019 when his second child was born. The Council had no record of that and no action was taken. That is fault.
- The Council identified when Mr X approached in March 2022 that the property was not suitable and again when considering his complaint later that year but it did not offer other temporary accommodation. It said in responding to my enquiries that demand outstrips supply but it remained committed to finding suitable accommodation for Mr X.
- Section 206 of the Housing Act 1996 says all temporary accommodation must be suitable for the needs of the applicant and household members. We consider delay in transferring the applicant to suitable accommodation is service failure even when that is due to external factors beyond the Council’s control (such as a shortage of temporary accommodation). However here the Council failed to even consider whether Mr X and his family needed alternative accommodation because it did not act on the information Mr X provided about the birth of his second child. And it has not provided any evidence to show what steps it has taken since March 2022 to find suitable alternative accommodation. That is all fault.
- The Council started an assessment of whether the accommodation was suitable for Mr X in August 2022. At one point Mr X said he would not provide more information because he wanted to see the conclusion of his complaint to us. But then he did provide the information and the Council completed the assessment in November 2022. That concluded the family needed a two bedroom property. Their current property is one bedroom. The Council has commented it considered the current property “was and has remained suitable for the short to medium term” since the second child was born. That is not a logical conclusion given its own assessment of the family’s needs for a two bedroom property.
- These failings have meant Mr X and his family have been living in unsuitable temporary accommodation since November 2019. The only remedy that can be provided for this now is a payment. In line with our Guidance on Remedies the Council should pay them £200 a month which should continue until they are offered suitable accommodation. I considered whether that should be reduced because of the delay in completing the suitability review because Mr X did not respond. But that has not made any difference to the outcome as the Council has still not offered alternative accommodation.
Disrepair
- Mr X reported disrepair to the Council in March 2022. He was told to report to the managing agents. The Council accepted in its stage two response that was wrong. And that he was not told that the Council had in fact contacted the agents. The Council considered the repairs were satisfactorily completed in July. As Mr X has reported continuing problems the Council is going to reinspect.
- There will have been some delay in completing the repairs because of the Council’s failure to act in March 2022. The Council will pay a further £300 for this. The reinspection is the appropriate action.
Agreed action
- Within one month of this decision the Council will pay Mr X £8,000 for the failure to provide suitable temporary accommodation from November 2019 and a further £300 for the delay in responding to the report of disrepair. It should also pay him £200 a month until a suitable offer of temporary accommodation is made. It will also apologise to him. The Council should provide evidence to us that it has completed the above actions.
Final decision
- There was fault by the Council which caused injustice to Mr X.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman