Summary: There was fault in the way the Council decided to offer Miss B £250 for the time she spent unnecessarily living in unsuitable accommodation. The Council has agreed to make a payment of £2700 which is in accordance with our guidance on remedies.

The complaint

1. In order to settle Miss B’s previous complaint to the Ombudsman, the Council agreed to make a financial payment for the time she spent unnecessarily living in unsuitable accommodation. Miss B complains that the payment the Council has offered is not sufficient to remedy her injustice.

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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 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)
3. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), 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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What I have and have not investigated

5. I have investigated whether there was fault in the way the Council decided to offer Miss B £250 to remedy the injustice resulting from the fault identified in our previous investigation. I have not reinvestigated Miss B’s previous complaint.
6. I have also not investigated Miss B’s complaint that the Council has reduced her housing priority and changed her award date. This is because Miss B no longer wants to move to a Council property and so I do not consider this is causing Miss B any injustice.

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How I considered this complaint

7. I have:
• considered the complaint and the documents provided by the complainant;
• made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council has provided; and
• given the Council and the complainant the opportunity to comment on my draft decision.

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What I found

Council’s allocations policy

8. To join the housing register, applicants must have been a resident in the borough of Broxtowe for 3 out of the last 5 years, unless an exception applies. One exception is applicants who are survivors of domestic abuse who cannot return to their home or need rehousing away from their home because of fear of violence.
9. The Council operates a needs based banding system with bands arranged to reflect housing need. The Council has 4 application bands:
• Band 1: this includes applicants with urgent medical priority.
• Band 2: this includes applicants fleeing domestic abuse and those with high medical priority.

Background and key events

10. Miss B previously complained to the Ombudsman that the Council had not given her enough priority on the housing register and that its actions prevented her from moving to a suitable property.
11. We completed our investigation in January 2024. We found that the Council had failed to consider whether Miss B qualified for medical priority when it reviewed Miss B’s housing priority in August 2022. One of the actions the Council agreed to take to settle Miss B’s complaint was to carry out another review of its housing priority decision and to backdate any increase in priority to August 2022. The Council also agreed to consider whether Miss B had missed out on any properties, and if she had, to offer her the next suitable property and a financial payment in line with our guidance on remedies for the time she spent unnecessarily living in unsuitable accommodation.
12. The Council had already awarded Band 1 to Miss B in July 2023 after she had an Occupational Therapy (OT) assessment. The OT report said that her accommodation was unsuitable and she needed adapted accommodation with a level access shower and the space to fit a stair lift to meet her long term needs, or level access accommodation.
13. In March 2024, the Council told us that it had backdated the Band 1 award to August 2022. It confirmed that if Miss B had been awarded Band 1 in August 2022, there were seven properties which she would have been offered, if she had bid on them.
14. The Council decided to offer Miss B £250 to recognise that she had missed out on these properties. Miss B then complained to us again because she did not consider the payment the Council had offered was sufficient.
15. The Council made a direct offer of a property to Miss B in July 2024. It says this was the first suitable property which had become available since our previous investigation. Miss B refused the offer and told the Council that she would not be accepting any offers the Council makes.

Enquiry response

16. In the Council’s response to our enquiries on this complaint, it said that it does not agree with our previous decision. It does not accept that it was responsible for the delay in Miss B having an OT assessment. It also does not consider it should backdate the Band 1 award to August 2022, or that Miss B missed out on any properties. This is because it does not consider Miss B qualified to be on the housing register between November 2021 and July 2023.
17. The Council has explained that Miss B was originally accepted on to the Council’s housing register because she was experiencing domestic abuse which was an exception to the local residency criteria. The Council says that Miss B’s application should have been closed in November 2021 when her local council moved her to alternative accommodation. It says that as she was no longer fleeing domestic abuse and she did not meet the local residency criteria, she did not qualify to be on its housing register.

Analysis

18. When we investigated Miss B’s previous complaint, the Council knew that she had moved and that she claimed to still be at risk of domestic abuse. When it carried out a review of Miss B’s housing priority in August 2022, it was satisfied that Miss B qualified to be on its housing register due to the risk of domestic abuse.
19. When we completed our investigation in January 2024, the Council accepted our decision and agreed to carry out the actions we recommended. We will not investigate matters we have already investigated, and we will not carry out a review of our previous decision now.
20. This investigation is to consider whether there was fault in the way the Council decided to offer Miss B £250 to remedy the injustice resulting from the fault identified during our previous investigation.
21. The Council told us that its decision to offer £250 was based on our guidance on remedies, which says that we will normally recommend a payment of up to £500 for distress. However, our guidance also says that where a complainant has had to remain in unsuitable accommodation because of fault in the housing allocation process, financial redress is likely to be in the range of £150 to £350 a month. I consider there was fault in the way the Council decided to offer £250 to Miss B.
22. I have considered how long Miss B was unnecessarily living in unsuitable accommodation because of the failings identified in our previous investigation. The evidence the Council has provided shows that if the Council had awarded Band 1 to Miss B in August 2022, she is likely to have successfully bid on suitable accommodation by January 2023.
23. The Council offered Miss B suitable accommodation in July 2024, which she refused. I consider Miss B was living in unsuitable accommodation between January 2023 and July 2024 as a result of the failings identified in our previous investigation.

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Agreed action

24. Within four weeks, the Council will make a payment of £2700 to Miss B to acknowledge the 18 months she was living in unsuitable accommodation because of the failings identified in our previous investigation.
25. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Final decision

26. I have completed my investigation and uphold Miss B’s complaint. There was fault by the Council which caused injustice. The action the Council has agreed to 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