Summary: Ms X complained the Council prevented a move to a neighbouring council and refused her application to move properties despite her being homeless following issues with her current property. We did not find fault with the Council’s consideration of Ms X’s homelessness application.

The complaint

1. Ms X said she has requested to move to a different council property following issues with her neighbours. Ms X complained the Council refused her application to move properties. Ms X also complained the Council prevented her moving to a neighbouring council.
2. Ms X says she has made a homelessness application to the Council after the issues with her neighbours reached the point where she had no choice but to leave her current property.

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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 cannot investigate complaints about the provision or management of social housing by a council acting as a registered social housing provider. (Local Government Act 1974, paragraph 5A schedule 5, as amended)
5. 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)
6. 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)
7. 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

8. I have not investigated Ms X’s complaint about her request to transfer to another council property.
9. The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman can only investigate complaints about allocations under an allocation scheme manager under the provision of the Housing Act 1996 part 6. This includes grounds where the person falls under a reasonable preference criteria to move.
10. When the Council assessed Ms X’s application to move council properties, the Council made a discretionary “management decision” to agree for Ms X to move. This decision falls outside the jurisdiction of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.
11. The Council has already referred Ms X to the Housing Ombudsman. The Housing Ombudsman is the relevant statutory body based placed to deal with this part of Ms X’s complaint.
12. Ms X brought her complaint to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman on 6 May 2024. We cannot investigate complaints when someone takes more than 12 months to bring a complaint to our attention. This means we cannot investigate matters before 6 May 2023. Given Ms X contacted the Council in April 2023 about homelessness, I have exercised my discretion to investigate a further month back in this instance. However, there is no good reason to investigate Ms X’s complaint further back.

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How I considered this complaint

13. I considered evidence provided by Ms X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
14. Ms X and the Council had opportunity to comment on my draft decision before I made my final decision.

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What I found

Legislation and statutory guidance

15. 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.
16. Someone is homeless if they have no accommodation or if they have accommodation, but it is not reasonable for them to continue to live there. (Housing Act 1996, Section 175)
17. 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)

18. 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)

What happened

19. Since 2018, Ms X has been living in a council property.
20. On 3 March 2023, Ms X contacted the Council following discussions over a proposed managed transfer of properties to confirm that she would be staying put in her current council property.
21. On 21 April 2023, Ms X told the Council she was living in her car because of the issues she was experiencing at her property. Following discussions with the Council, Ms X made a formal homelessness application on 1 May 2023.
22. The Council requested further information from Ms X in response to her homelessness application. Ms X did not provide the requested information. The Council closed Ms X’s homelessness application following disengagement.
23. On 3 July 2023, Ms X made a formal complaint to the Council about the issues with the property. Ms X said she claimed homelessness with the Council.
24. The Council provided its Stage 1 complaint response on 4 August 2023. The Council said it had offered Ms X a move within the borough as a gesture of goodwill but Ms X had declined this.
25. In April 2024, Ms X contacted a neighbouring council to request a move to that council area.
26. The neighbouring council contacted Dartford council to clarify the situation. Dartford Council responded to advise Ms X was living in a council property and it had not accepted a homelessness duty to Ms X.
27. In May 2024, Ms X told her MP and the Council that she considered it was unsafe to return to her council property. Ms X said the police supported this position.
28. In June 2024, the Council approached the police who confirmed they considered it was safe for Ms X to return to her council property and it had no concerns of any immediate risk for her.

Analysis

29. A council should consider someone who presents to them as homeless and decide if they need to complete an assessment of this person.
30. Ms X contacted the Council in April 2023 to advise she was currently homeless as she was living in her car because of the issues at her property. This meets the baseline criteria for the council to consider the need for an assessment for homelessness of Ms X.
31. The Council acted correctly to ask further questions of Ms X about her living situation to decide if it needed to complete an assessment of Ms X. However, Ms X stopped engaging in the homelessness application process in May 2023 resulting in the Council closing the application. A council cannot force someone to provide information or proceed with an application. Since Ms X chose not to engage in this process, I cannot find fault with the Council closing the application.
32. Within Ms X’s formal complaint, she again raised concerns about her homelessness. The Council addressed this in its Stage 1 complaint response by advising that Ms X currently had a council property available to her and offered her a move to another council property. This meant the Council was satisfied Ms X was not homeless or at risk of homelessness. I cannot find fault with the Council for this rationale.
33. From April 2024 to June 2024, the Council has repeated its consideration that Ms X is not homeless or at risk of homelessness. Following Ms X’s contact with a neighbouring council it confirmed it had not accepted a homeless duty for Ms X and that Ms X had a council property as her main residence. And, following Ms X’s contact in May 2024 to advise the police said it was unsafe for her to return to her property, the Council made the necessary checks with the police who confirmed they had no concerns about any immediate risk to Ms X at the property. The Council took the correct steps in both situations to confirm that Ms X was not homeless or at risk of homelessness. I do not find fault with the Council.

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Decision

34. I have ended my investigation as there is no evidence of fault by the Council.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman