London Borough of Lewisham (24 022 568)
Category : Housing > Homelessness
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 10 Jun 2025
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s review of suitability of Miss X’s temporary accommodation. It was reasonable for her to appeal against the decision to the County Court if she wished to challenge it.
The complaint
- Miss X says she believes the Council’s review of the suitability of her temporary accommodation failed to give sufficient priority to her complaints about affordability and medical needs.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council’s review.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Miss X says the Council did not properly consider her circumstances when it carried out a review of her temporary accommodation under s.202 of the Housing Act 1996. She says she asked in her review request for medical issues to be considered and also the affordability of the property.
- The Council’s review referred to these matters in some detail, but Miss X disagrees with the outcome.
- We cannot overturn a decision on a homelessness matter, including a review about suitability of accommodation. This is because the legislation offers a review and appeal procedure and we would expect someone to use this. Miss X has already used the review process and the Council’s review decision clearly referred her to the right of appeal afforded under s.204 of the Housing Act within 21 days.
Final decision
- We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s review of suitability of Miss X’s temporary accommodation. It was reasonable for her to appeal against the decision to the County Court if she wished to challenge it.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman