Summary: Miss C complained how the Council has handled her rent arrears for her temporary accommodation. She says the Council failed to tell her about her rent arrears and its communication with her has been poor. We cannot investigate Miss C’s substantive concerns about the rent arrears due to the lack of records from the Council after it was a victim of a cyber-attack. However, this is a service failure, which has caused Miss C an injustice. The Council was also at fault for its communication with Miss C. The Council has agreed to our recommendations to address Miss C’s injustice.

The complaint

1. Miss C complained how the Council has handled her rent arrears for her temporary accommodation. She says the Council failed to tell her about her rent arrears and its communication with her has been poor.
2. Miss C says she has missed out on securing long-term social housing because of the Council’s failures.

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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 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

5. I considered information from Miss C. I made written enquiries of the Council and considered information it sent in response.
6. Miss C 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

7. If a council is satisfied an applicant is unintentionally 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 housing duty. The accommodation a council provides until it can end this duty is called temporary accommodation. (Housing Act 1996, section 193)

Discretionary Housing Payments

8. A council may award discretionary housing payments (DHP) when someone needs help with housing costs and is claiming Housing Benefit or Universal Credit which includes housing costs towards rent. (Discretionary Housing Payments guidance manual February 2021, section 1.7, as amended)

Housing benefit

9. Housing Benefit helps qualifying people on low incomes pay their rent. It is administered and paid by the council. The Housing Benefit Regulations 2006 (the Regulations) set out the rules councils must follow for calculating and paying Housing Benefit.

What happened

10. Miss C is homeless and lives in temporary accommodation. She bids for long-term housing on the Council’s housing register.
11. The Council was a victim of a cyber-attack in October 2020.
12. Miss C emailed the Council in March 2022 and asked for an update. She said she was fifth on the bidding list for a property, but the Council had failed to invite her for a viewing.
13. Miss C’s housing benefit account was affected by the cyber-attack. Once the system was switched back on, officers noted Miss C had rent arrears relating to her current property and a previous property.
14. Miss C chased the Council for a response to her email from March in June. The Council responded the following day and said she needed to clear the rent arrears on her account. It said if she did not clear them, she would lose out on a potential property.
15. Miss C tried contacting the Council to get further information about her rent arrears. She also complained it failed to invite her to view properties when she was high on the bidding list.
16. The Council responded to Miss C’s complaint. It said she had not cleared the rent arrears on her account. It said no landlord would accept her as a tenant with rent arrears.
17. Miss C referred her complaint to stage two of the Council’s complaints procedure. She said it had failed to tell her about the arrears on her account until recently when she contacted it about her bidding. She said she had tried to contact various officers to get further information, but they had failed to help.
18. Miss C sent several emails to the Council throughout July, August and September seeking an update on the rent arrears. She also made a DHP application.
19. The Council issued its stage two response to Miss C’s complaint at the end of September. It said she did not receive the full housing benefit entitlement for July to September 2020, which resulted in rent arrears. It said she had failed to make any payments towards the arrears, despite being notified about it several times. It also said she previously made a DHP claim in August 2020, which was rejected, and she failed to provide the required information. It said once she provided the information, it would assess her DHP claim. It apologised for its lack of communication.
20. Miss C made a further DHP application. She has received some help towards her housing costs. Her outstanding arrears have been reduced but they are still ongoing.

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Analysis

21. The crux of Miss C’s complaint is the Council failed to tell her about her rent arrears until June 2022. She says it failed to contact her and chase for payment.
22. The Council was a victim of a cyber-attack in October 2020 and has been unable to provide records to show that it told Miss C about her rent arrears, as it stated in response to her complaint, or that it asked her for information to progress her DHP claim. This is crucial information which is required for us to form a view. We are therefore unable to investigate this part of Miss C’s complaint.
23. While we are not making any finding about fault in respect of the rent arrears, our inability to do so is caused by service failure by the Council as record keeping and the ability to investigate and respond to complaints are functions we expect authorities to maintain at all times. This service failure has caused Miss C an injustice in the form of frustration as she is currently unable to receive an outcome to her concerns.
24. We will revisit this case with the Council in around 12 months’ time to decide whether any evidence has become available that means we could investigate the full complaint.
25. There is sufficient evidence available for me to investigate Miss C’s complaint on how the Council communicated with her. She sent numerous emails querying the rent arrears and most of them went unanswered. The Council also took an unreasonable amount of time to reply has caused her frustration and she was put to avoidable time and inconvenience chasing for responses. While I note the Council’s apologised to Miss C, I do not consider this is sufficient to remedy her injustice.

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Agreed action

26. To address the injustice caused by fault, by 23 June 2023 the Council has agreed to:

• Apologise to Miss C.
• Pay Miss C £150 for her frustration caused by the lack of Council records.
• Pay Miss C £200 to reflect her frustration and avoidable time and inconvenience from the Council’s poor communication.

27. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Final decision

28. There was fault by the Council, which caused Miss C an injustice. The Council has agreed to my recommendations and so I have completed my investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman