Summary: Miss X complains the Council placed her in unsuitable housing. The Council placed Miss X in unsuitable housing. Miss X and her family had to live in unsuitable housing for 5 months. The Council should apologise and pay Miss X £1,250.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Miss X, complains the Council placed her in unsuitable accommodation.
2. Miss X says she had to live in unsuitable accommodation for six months

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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)
4. When considering complaints, we make findings based on the balance of probabilities. This means that we look at the available relevant evidence and decide what was more likely to have happened.
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 evidence provided by Miss X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
7. Miss X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

Law, guidance and policies

8. 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)
9. If a council is satisfied an applicant is unintentionally 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 called the main housing duty. The accommodation a council provides until it can end this duty is called temporary accommodation. (Housing Act 1996, section 193)
10. If a council ends its interim accommodation duty, but then goes on to accept the main housing duty, it still has a duty to provide temporary accommodation.
11. 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 and temporary accommodation. (Housing Act 1996, section 206 and Homelessness Code of Guidance 17.2)
12. Interim and temporary accommodation can be the same physical property. What changes is the legal duty under which a council provides it. This is important because there is a statutory right to review the suitability of temporary accommodation. This then carries a right of appeal to county court on a point of law. There is no statutory right to review the suitability of interim accommodation.

What happened?

13. This is a brief chronology of key events. It does not contain everything I reviewed during my investigation.
14. Miss X applied to the Council as homeless. Miss X was placed in interim accommodation.
15. Miss X contacted the Council and asked it to consider alternative accommodation that was closer to her children’s school, and that the accommodation provided was unsuitable. Miss X made a complaint to the Council.
16. The Council said Miss X was not eligible for a suitability review due to being in interim accommodation and that it could not consider her complaint further at that time.
17. The Council accepted a s193 main housing duty towards Miss X. The Council then completed a suitability review of Miss X’s accommodation.
18. The Council decided that Miss X’s accommodation was not suitable and provided her with different temporary accommodation.

Analysis

19. The Council provided Miss X with new accommodation for her and her family within 3 days of completing the suitability review.
20. On the balance of probabilities this was because the initial accommodation offered by the Council was not suitable. This is fault by the Council. Miss X had to live in unsuitable accommodation for a period of 5 months between October 2024 and the end of March 2025.

The Ombudsman’s Guidance on Remedies

21. Where a complainant has been deprived of suitable accommodation during what would inevitably have been a stressful period in their life, our recommendation for financial redress is likely to be in the range of £150 to £350 a month.

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Action

22. To remedy the outstanding injustice caused by the fault I have identified, the Council has agreed to take the following action within 4 weeks of this decision:
• Apologise to Miss X for the fault found. 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 I have recommended in my findings.
• Pay Miss X £1,250, comprising £250 for each month she was in unsuitable accommodation.
23. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

24. I find fault causing injustice. The Council has agreed actions to remedy injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman