Summary: Mr B complained the Council failed to deal with his application as homeless from October 2020. He said the Council’s failings meant he suffered significant uncertainty and worry about his housing situation. There was fault by the Council. It will remedy the injustice to Mr B by apologising and making a payment. It will also take action to address the failings identified in this statement.

The complaint

1. I refer to the complainant as Mr B. He complained the Council failed to deal with his application as homeless from October 2020. He said the Council’s failings meant he suffered significant uncertainty and worry about his housing situation.

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What I have and have not investigated

2. Mr B complained to us in February 2023. I have considered events over the previous year from February 2022. I refer to earlier events by way of background.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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)
4. 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)
5. 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

6. I considered the complaint and documents provided by Mr B and spoke to him I asked the Council to comment on the complaint and provide information. I sent a draft of this statement to Mr B and the Council and considered any comments made.

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What I found

Summary of relevant legal provisions

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. If councils are satisfied applicants are threatened with homelessness and eligible for assistance, they must help the applicants to secure that accommodation does not stop being available for their occupation. In deciding what steps they are to take, councils must have regard to their assessments of the applicants’ cases. I refer to this as the prevention duty. (Housing Act 1996, section 195)
9. The steps the Council has identified should be tailored to the household, and follow from the findings of the assessment, and must be provided to the applicant in writing as their personalised housing plan. (Housing Act 1996, section 189A and Homelessness Code of Guidance paragraphs 11.6 and 11.18)
10. Councils must take reasonable steps to help to secure suitable accommodation for any eligible homeless person. When a council decides this duty has come to an end, it must notify the applicant in writing. I refer to this as the relief duty. (Housing Act 1996, section 189B)
11. A council must secure interim accommodation for an applicant and their household if it has reason to believe the applicant may be homeless, eligible for assistance and have a priority need. (Housing Act 1996, section 188)
12. If a council is satisfied an applicant is 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 the main housing duty. (Housing Act 1996, section 193 and Homelessness Code of Guidance 15.39)

What happened

13. Mr B shared a Council property with his brother and his brother’s daughter, who I will refer to as Ms X. Mr B’s brother was the tenant. When he died Mr B applied to succeed to the tenancy but the Council rejected his application. At some point it began possession proceedings against Mr B to remove him and Ms X from the property.
14. In October 2020 Mr B approached the Council as homeless including Ms X as part of the household. In December 2020 the Council accepted Mr B was threatened with homelessness. It says it then put the application on hold pending the outcome of the possession proceedings.
15. The court issued a possession order to Mr B in February 2022 which meant he had to give up the occupation of the property. The Council offered Mr B and Ms X interim accommodation at the end of March, just as they were due to be evicted. Shortly afterwards they moved to different interim accommodation where they have remained.
16. Mr B made a formal complaint to the Council in December 2022. The Council accepted there had been faults in how it had dealt with Mr B’s application as homeless. After we asked the Council to respond to our enquiries about the complaint the Council accepted it had the main housing duty to Mr B and wrote to him with that decision in early June 2023. Mr B is on the housing register with his application backdated to May 2022.

Analysis

17. There are no statutory time limits for making a decision on a homelessness application. But we expect authorities to conduct assessments, take necessary actions and make decisions, in a reasonable timeframe. Mr B applied to the Council as threatened with homeless in October 2020. I am only considering events from February 2022 although the Council accepted fault in its early handling of this application.
18. The Council accepted it was at fault in how long it took to determine Mr B’s homelessness application and agreed to make a payment in recognition of the injustice this will have caused to him.
19. There was also fault in the Council failing to tell Mr B it owed him the relief duty in March 2022.
20. The Council accepted it had a duty to provide interim accommodation when Mr B and Ms X were about to be evicted at the end of March 2023. The code of guidance states it is highly unlikely to be reasonable for the applicant to continue to occupy beyond the date on which the court has ordered them to leave the property and give possession to the landlord. It goes on that housing authorities should not consider it reasonable for an applicant to remain in occupation up until the point at which a court issues a warrant or writ to enforce an order for possession. In this case the Council did expect Mr B and Ms X to remain in occupation up to the day of eviction which is not in accordance with the code of guidance and is fault. The Council has provided no explanation for why its approach is counter to the guidance and, from its complaint response, it appears to be a generally adopted practice by the Council.
21. Once the relief duty ended the Council should have decided what further duties it owed to Mr B. It did not do so even when Mr B complained and it only reached a decision, a year later, when we wrote to the Council. The Council has offered no explanation for went wrong here. These failings could indicate wider problems in the Council’s homelessness service delivery.
22. Mr B and Ms X have been housed by the Council. Albeit the move in March 2022 was left to the last minute. Mr B has not said the accommodation is unsuitable so I have to consider he has been satisfactorily housed throughout. But he will have experienced frustration, uncertainty and distress in waiting for a decision from the Council. His priority on the housing register has been backdated to the point when the Council should have determined his application so there is not any outstanding injustice on that point. The Council’s failings caused injustice to Mr B but I cannot say his housing situation would have been materially different. The remedy is therefore a symbolic payment to reflect the distress caused to him.

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Agreed action

23. The Council will:
• apologise to Mr B. In doing so it should have regard to our new guidance on making an effective apology. It will also pay him £500.
• review how long its homelessness service is taking to determine homelessness applications and decide whether any action is necessary to improve performance. It should also consider whether there needs to be checks in place to ensure there is not the drift in deciding applications that happened here.
• review the approach it takes when a homelessness applicant is facing eviction and the point at which it will offer accommodation.
24. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the first point within one month of the final decision and the second two within two months.

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Final decision

25. There was fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman