Summary: Ms X complained the Council failed to act when she was issued with an eviction notice from her privately rented accommodation. She also complained about the Council’s actions following her eviction. We found fault by the Council in its handling of Ms X’s case. The Council agreed to apologise to Ms X and make her payment in recognition of the financial losses she incurred, and the distress caused to her and her children.

The complaint

1. Ms X complained the Council failed to act when she was issued with an eviction notice from her landlord. She stated this led to the Council having to find her last-minute accommodation once evicted and she incurred avoidable costs. Ms X also complained about the Council’s actions following her eviction.
2. Ms X stated the Council’s actions have negatively impacted the physical and mental health of her and her children. She also said they have been caused distress, financial hardship and been put to the avoidable time and trouble in pursuing these matters.

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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. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone has a right of appeal, reference or review to a tribunal about the same matter. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to use this right. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
5. The Social Entitlement Chamber (also known as the Social Security Appeal Tribunal) is a tribunal that considers housing benefit appeals. (The Social Entitlement Chamber of the First Tier Tribunal)
6. 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 significant injustice, or that could cause injustice to others in the future we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
7. Service failure can happen when an organisation fails to provide a service as it should have done because of circumstances outside its control. We do not need to show any blame, intent, flawed policy or process, or bad faith by an organisation to say service failure (fault) has occurred. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1), as amended)
8. 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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What I have and have not investigated

9. I have investigated Ms X’s complaints about matters which occurred from January 2023 onwards.
10. I have not investigated Ms X’s complaints about matters that occurred between 2016 and 2022. This is because of the restriction set out in paragraph 3.
11. I have not investigated Ms X’s concerns about an overpayment of housing benefit. This is because Ms X appealed to the tribunal about this matter and so we cannot investigate, as set out in paragraphs 4 and 5.

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How I considered this complaint

12. As part of my investigation I have:
• discussed the complaint with Ms X and considered information she provided.
• made enquiries of the Council and considered its response.
• had regard to the relevant legislation and guidance.
• had regard to our guidance on remedies; and
• set out my initial thoughts on the complaint in a draft decision statement and I considered comments from Ms X and the Council. I sent a revised draft decision to Ms X and the Council and I considered comments from Ms X and the Council.

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What I found

13. Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996 and the Homelessness Code of Guidance for Local Authorities (the Code) set out councils’ powers and duties to people who are homeless or threatened with homelessness.
14. Someone is threatened with homelessness if, when asking for assistance from the council on or after 3 April 2018:

• they are likely to become homeless within 56 days; or
• they have been served with a valid Section 21 notice which will expire within 56 days. (Housing Act 1996, section 175(4) & (5)

15. Councils must complete an assessment if they are satisfied an applicant is homeless or threatened with homelessness. The Code of Guidance says, rather than advise the applicant to return when homelessness is more imminent, the housing authority may wish to accept a prevention duty and begin to take reasonable steps to prevent homelessness. Councils must notify the applicant of the assessment. Councils should work with applicants to identify practical and reasonable steps for the council and the applicant to take to help the applicant keep or secure suitable accommodation. These steps 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)
16. 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. (Housing Act 1996, section 195)
17. Where the council owes or has owed certain housing duties to an applicant, it must protect the applicant’s personal property if there is a risk it may be lost or damaged. A council may make a reasonable charge for storage and reserve the right to dispose of the property if it loses contact with the applicant. (Housing Act 1996, section 211, Homelessness Code of Guidance chapter 20)
18. The law says councils must ensure all accommodation provided to homeless applicants is suitable for the needs of the applicant and members of their household. This duty applies to interim accommodation and accommodation provided under the main housing duty. (Housing Act 1996, section 206 and Homelessness Code of Guidance 17.2)
19. Homelessness temporary accommodation must be legally suitable. (Housing Act 1996, section 206) Anyone who believes their temporary accommodation is unsuitable can ask the Council to review the accommodation’s suitability. (Housing Act 1996, section 202) If the Council’s review decides the accommodation is unsuitable, the Council must provide suitable accommodation. If the review decides the accommodation is suitable, the applicant has the right to appeal to the county court on a point of law. (Housing Act 1996, section 204)
20. Bed and breakfast (B&B) accommodation can only be used for households which include a pregnant woman or dependent child when no other accommodation is available and then for no more than six weeks. B&B is accommodation which is not self-contained, not owned by the council or a registered provider of social housing and where the toilet, washing, or cooking facilities are shared with other households. (Homelessness (Suitability of Accommodation) (England) Order 2003 and Homelessness Code of Guidance paragraph 17.35)

Housing Benefit

21. Housing Benefit helps eligible people on low incomes pay their rent and the Council manages and pays this. The Housing Benefit Regulations 2006 (the Regulations) set out the rules councils must follow for calculating and paying Housing Benefit. Usually, the Council pays the tenant housing benefit; it is responsible for paying the rent to the person’s landlord.
22. If a council pays too much housing benefit to someone, it will usually ask them to repay it. The law says the council can recover overpayment unless it was caused by an official error and it was not reasonable to expect the person to realise they were receiving too much benefit.
23. If someone disagrees with a decision that they must repay an overpayment they can appeal to the tribunal. The law says people should appeal within one month of the date of the decision they think is wrong. The tribunal can accept a late appeal up to 13 months from the date of the decision. Because of this opportunity for appeal, we would not normally investigate complaints about these decisions.

The Council’s complaints procedure

24. This explains how the Council will address complaints about its services. It says that a stage one complaint will be acknowledged within five working days and a reply sent within 10 working days. If the complainant is unhappy with the Council’s reply they can escalated their complaint to stage two. A stage two complaint will be acknowledged in five working days and replied to within 20 working days.

What happened

25. The following chronology details the key events in the complaint. It is not meant to show everything that has happened.
26. In 2016 Ms X approached the Council as homeless. It accepted the main housing duty to her and provided her with temporary accommodation. Ms X has conditions which affect her physical health.
27. In 2019 Ms X moved into new temporary accommodation. This was a privately rented property. She lived there with her two children.
28. In March 2023 Ms X told the Council her landlord had issued her with a section 21 notice. The Council did not act on her report.
29. In September Ms X told the Council she needed to leave her privately rented home by 11 October. The Council assigned Ms X a new Housing Officer (HO) but took no further action.
30. In early October Ms X asked the Council for help arranging storage for her belongings. She did not receive a response.
31. On 10 October Ms X hired a van to move her belongings. Ms X could not remove all her belongings because the van was too small, and no storage was arranged.
32. On 11 October Ms X and her three children (Ms X had another child since moving into her privately rented home) were evicted. Bailiffs placed a notice on the front door of the property saying she had seven days to remove her remaining belongings.
33. On 11 October Ms X contacted her HO on several occasions before receiving a call at 12:30pm offering her temporary accommodation. The accommodation offered was unsuitable because it could not accommodate all her children and was not suitable for Ms X’s medical needs.
34. With no temporary accommodation arranged Ms X went to the Council’s offices. Her HO arranged for temporary accommodation in a hotel.
35. Ms X went to the hotel but was told there was not a booking for her. Ms X had to call the out of hours homelessness team to arrange accommodation.
36. At 9pm Ms X was able to access accommodation for the night.
37. On 12 October Ms X returned to the Council to arrange accommodation for that day. Ms X was told a booking had been made at a hotel for her. The hotel room did not have any cooking or laundry facilities.
38. At the sign-up meeting for the accommodation Ms X:
• told the officer she had three children. The officer wrote the details of her third child on the front of her housing benefit form.
• was told there would be a shortfall of £33.25 per week between her housing benefit (HB) payments and her accommodation costs. The £33.25 was for heating and breakfast costs which cannot be paid for using HB. Ms X signed a license agreement for the accommodation which says she needs to pay any shortfall between her HB and accommodation costs.
• was told she would receive a rent card to pay the shortfall and that she did not need to pay until she received the rent card. Ms X took this to mean she would not be charged the shortfall until she received a rent card.
39. On 13 October at 1:30pm Ms X was told the Council had arranged storage for her belongings. Ms X stated this only left her with one hour to move the rest of her belongings from her home.
40. On 3 November Ms X received a letter saying she owed £1620.00. Ms X tried to contact the officer who sent the letter but was unsuccessful.
41. On 9 November Ms X visited the Council’s one stop advice service because she was unable to speak to an officer about the bill she had received.
42. On 10 November Ms X received a call from the Council who explained the bill was for her hotel accommodation. It said her HB claim was now processed and so, payment for the bill would be made.
43. On 20 November Ms X was told she could not access the storage arranged by the Council. This was because the Council needed to pay the storage costs but had not done so. The storage company said it would dispose of her belongings unless payment is made. Ms X told the Council.
44. On 24 November Ms X received a rent card to pay the shortfall between her HB and accommodation costs. However, Ms X was unaware she was being charged for the shortfall since she moved into the accommodation. This meant Ms X had accrued arrears for her accommodation.
45. On 25 November Ms X received a call from the Council, and she discovered it had not included her youngest daughter on her HB application form. As a result of the error Ms X was told she had received a HB overpayment. Ms X appealed to the Tribunal about the overpayment. The error also meant the shortfall between her HB and accommodation costs increased by £4.05 per week.
46. On 15 December the Council made an offer of unsuitable temporary accommodation to Ms X. She did not accept the offer and remained in hotel accommodation.
47. On 20 December the Council paid the overdue storage fees.
48. In March 2024 Ms X was unable to access her possessions because her storage fees were not paid by the Council. This was rectified on 7 March.
49. On 13 March Ms X moved to new permanent accommodation and the Council ended its housing duty to her.

Ms X’s complaints

50. Ms X made a stage one complaint to the Council on 23 October 2023. She complained:
• the Council did not act on her reports she was threatened with homelessness and did not help her until the day she was evicted.
• did not provide her with temporary accommodation until 9pm on the day she was evicted leaving her and her children with nowhere to go.
• she had incurred additional costs in hiring a van and been unable to remove all her belongings because the Council failed to help her before she was evicted.
• failed to pay her storage costs so she cannot access her possessions.
• the officer who signed her up for her temporary accommodation did not explain she needed to pay the shortfall between her HB and accommodation costs from the start of her stay. She also failed to include her youngest child on her HB application form.
• the Council wrongly suspended her housing register application in 2019 preventing her from bidding for permanent accommodation.
• in 2016 the Council made errors with its handling of her homelessness case, and she had incurred costs as result. She would like compensation for the errors.
51. Ms X did not receive a reply, and she chased up a response in January 2024.
52. On 6 February the Council replied. It said:
• there was no need for Ms X to leave her home when she first approached the Council about being threatened with homelessness in March 2023.
• the Council placed Ms X on its ‘move list’ after she contacted the Council on 25 September 2023. It accepted there was a delay in providing her with temporary accommodation and it should have taken steps to secure her accommodation before 11 October.
• it is unfortunate there was a mix up with the hotel on the day Ms X was evicted however she was provided with accommodation later that evening. A place at the hotel was confirmed the following day.
• Ms X has been evicted previously and so was aware of the eviction process. Therefore, she should not have hired a van on 10 October to remove her belongings as she did not know what accommodation she was would be given. She would also have known that she had seven days to move her belongings.
• it has paid her storage costs.
• Ms X signed the agreement for her hotel accommodation and so was aware of the costs and that she would incur them from the date she moved in.
• it is reasonable to expect Ms X to have checked her HB form and so she should have noted the omission of her youngest daughter on her claim.
• Ms X did not raise any claims with the Council about its actions in 2016 prior to her complaint. It did not consider there were grounds to consider this matter now.
53. Unhappy with the Council’s reply to Ms X escalated her complaint on 9 February 2024. She said the Council had not addressed all her complaints.
54. The Council replied on 8 March. It addressed the following issues not dealt with in its stage one reply. It said:
• the delay in arranging temporary accommodation was not due to the Council not including her youngest daughter on her application but because of medical needs which she did not disclose until 11 October 2023.
• Ms X should have put aside money to pay for the shortfall between her HB and accommodation costs until she received her rent card. It will not write off this debt.
• Ms X’s housing register application was suspended in 2019 because of rent arrears for her previous accommodation. The application was unsuspended in 2023 when the arrears were cleared.
• Ms X’s storage costs have been paid in full, albeit with some delay. Ms X could have kept sufficient clothing in her temporary accommodation and so it will not compensate her for buying new items when she could not access her stored possessions.
• it was Ms X’s decision to hire a van to remove her belongings and so it will not compensate her for the cost of doing so.
• storage was arranged for Ms X on 13 October and so there was no reason for her to leave belongings behind in her former home.
• Ms X could have made an application to the Council’s Household Support Fund for the cost she incurred while in living in the hotel.
• it does not consider there are grounds to pay Ms X compensation for the trauma of her housing situation.
• it cannot accept responsibility for losses Ms X says she incurred in 2016.
55. Unhappy Ms X complained to the Ombudsman. In response to our enquiries the Council said:
• there were delays in paying Ms X’s storage invoices. This was due to a problem setting up a new storage supplier on its payment system.
• Ms X was booked into a hotel on the day of her eviction. The room was not available because the hotel did not process the booking until later that day.
• Ms X signed the agreement for her temporary accommodation, and this explained the costs she would incur. Therefore, she was aware of the charges regardless of what the sign-up officer may or may not have told her.
• all of Ms X’s children were included on her HB claim.
• Ms X’s housing register application was suspended on 21 January 2019 because of rent arrears. It was unsuspended on 23 November 2023 when her rent areas were cleared.

Finding

Homelessness

56. The Council did not act on Ms X’s initial report she was threatened with homelessness. It should have done so. I note the Council accepted Ms X as homeless in 2016 and the accommodation she was evicted from was temporary accommodation. However, I would have expected it to carry out actions to try and prevent her homelessness and to find her alternative temporary accommodation.
57. Ms X did not receive the support and advice she should have from the Council in the months leading up to her eviction. This caused her avoidable distress and uncertainty at a difficult time. This is injustice.
58. Additionally, I have seen no evidence the Council took steps to identify suitable accommodation for Ms X and her children until the day of her eviction. This is fault.
59. On the day of Ms X’s eviction, the Council first made her an offer of unsuitable accommodation. It later told her it made a hotel booking for her, but the booking did not go through. This left Miss X with nowhere to go for several hours with her children before the Council arranged accommodation for them at 9pm. These events could have been avoidable if the Council had acted prior to Ms X’s eviction. These events undoubtedly caused Ms X and her children distress. This is injustice.
60. The Council arranged hotel accommodation for Ms X the day after her eviction. She remained in this accommodation until 13 March 2024. This is sixteen weeks longer than the maximum six weeks set out in the Code. While I understand the need for accommodation outstrips the supply of accommodation available to the Council, it remains Ms X and her family should not have been in such accommodation for so long. I consider the Council’s actions amount to service failure.
61. I consider Ms X and her children living in hotel accommodation for longer than recommended caused her and her family distress. It also resulted in Ms X incurring additional costs for laundry and food. This is injustice.

Shortfall between Housing Benefit and accommodation costs

62. The Council did not correctly update Ms X’s housing benefit application. It omitted to included Ms X’s younger daughter. I am satisfied Ms X told the Council as the details of her child were written on the front of the housing benefit form by the officer Ms X spoke with. Because of the error the shortfall between Ms X’s housing benefit and her accommodation costs increased by £4.05 per week. This was an additional cost that she did not have the opportunity to budget for. This will have caused Ms X distress and financial hardship.
63. Ms X states she was told she did not need to pay the difference between her housing benefit claim and her accommodation costs before she received a rent card. The Council refutes this and says Ms X’s license agreement says she needs to pay the difference. There is no record of what Ms X was told at the time she signed up for the accommodation and so I cannot say what she was or was not told. Nevertheless, the agreement is clear Ms X is liable for the cost and so, I do not consider she has been caused an injustice in being asked to pay the difference for this period. I do however accept the lack of clarity means Ms X has accrued arrears when she may not have otherwise done so.

Removal and storage costs

64. Ms X did not receive support or assistance from the Council prior to her eviction. Understandably this caused her anxiety and distress which informed her decision to hire a van to begin removing her belongings. Ms X might have made a different decision had she received help from the Council.
65. The Council did not arrange storage for Ms X for 2 days following her eviction. This meant she could not return the van she hired until storage was arranged. The Council may have arranged storage for Ms X’s belongings before she was evicted save for the fault identified in paragraph 57.
66. The Council arranged storage for Ms X two days following her eviction and so she was still able to collect the items that remained in her former home. I do not see the Council’s actions prevented her from doing so.
67. The Council did not pay for Ms X’s storage on time and so she could not access her belongings. This is fault. As a result, Ms X had to purchase new items such as winter clothing and other essentials. This is injustice. She was also caused worry that her stored belongings would be disposed of if the Council did not make payment. This is also injustice.

Complaint response

68. The Council took significantly longer than its published timescale to reply to Miss X’s stage one complaint. This put her to the additional time and trouble of pursuing a reply.

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Agreed action

69. Within one month of my final decision the Council will:
• apologise to Ms X in line with our guidance on making an effective apology; We publish guidance on remedies which sets out our expectations for how organisations should apologise effectively to remedy injustice. The organisation should consider this guidance in making the apology.
• pay Ms X £1600 for the distress caused to Ms X and her children by living in unsuitable hotel accommodation for sixteen weeks longer than they should have.
• pay Ms X £800 for the costs she incurred because of staying in hotel accommodation including food and laundry costs.
• clear any outstanding rent arrears Ms X has for the period she was in hotel accommodation. This is in keeping with our guidance on remedies which recommends rent arrears for unsuitable accommodation are cleared.
• pay Ms X £800 in recognition of the costs she incurred because of problems with the storage of her belongings. This includes costs Ms X incurred in hiring a van for longer than necessary and in buying items when she could not access her stored belongings.
• pay Ms X £500 for the distress caused to her and her family because of the Council’s failure to act on her reports of homelessness prior to her eviction, including not arranging accommodation until the day she was evicted. This payment is keeping with our guidance on remedies.
• pay Ms X £100 for the frustration and avoidable time and trouble caused to her in pursuing her complaint.
• share a copy of this decision with housing staff to identify learning from this complaint.
70. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Final decision

71. I have completed my investigation and found fault by the Council which caused Ms X and her family an injustice. I am satisfied the action the Council will take is sufficient to remedy that injustice.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman