Bristol City Council (24 019 205)

Category : Housing > Homelessness

Decision : Upheld

Decision date : 20 May 2025

The Ombudsman's final decision:

Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint the Council placed her in unsuitable temporary accommodation. This is because the Council agreed to resolve the complaint early by providing a proportionate remedy for the injustice caused.

The complaint

  1. Miss X complains the Council placed her in unsuitable temporary accommodation.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

  1. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we are satisfied with the actions an organisation has taken or proposes to take. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(7), as amended)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

  1. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
  2. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

  1. If we were to investigate, it is likely we would find fault causing Miss X an injustice. This is because, following a review, the Council accepted Miss X’s property was unsuitable in September 2024. I am satisfied Miss X and her partner living in an unsuitable property will have caused distress and frustration.
  2. The Council confirmed Miss X was moved to another property at the end of December 2024. The Council said Miss X has not raised any suitability concerns about this property.
  3. While the Council had offered a remedy of £250 during its complaint investigation, I am not satisfied this was sufficient to recognise the injustice caused.
  4. We therefore asked the Council to remedy the injustice caused by the likely fault by completing the following:
    • Apologise to Miss X for the delay in providing suitable temporary accommodation.
    • Make a payment of £200 for each month Miss X remained in unsuitable temporary accommodation, starting from when the Council first accepted the property was unsuitable. I have calculated Miss X was in unsuitable accommodation for four months, so a total of £800.

Back to top

Agreed action

  1. The Council agreed to resolve the complaint and will complete the above within four weeks of the final decision.

Back to top

Final decision

  1. We have upheld this complaint because the Council agreed to resolve the complaint early by providing a proportionate remedy for the injustice caused.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

Print this page

LGO logogram

Review your privacy settings

Required cookies

These cookies enable the website to function properly. You can only disable these by changing your browser preferences, but this will affect how the website performs.

View required cookies

Analytical cookies

Google Analytics cookies help us improve the performance of the website by understanding how visitors use the site.
We recommend you set these 'ON'.

View analytical cookies

In using Google Analytics, we do not collect or store personal information that could identify you (for example your name or address). We do not allow Google to use or share our analytics data. Google has developed a tool to help you opt out of Google Analytics cookies.

Privacy settings