Summary: The Council was at fault for the delay in carrying out homeless inquiries, providing suitable accommodation and accepting the housing duties after Ms X and her child Y reapproached it as homeless in March 2024. The Council was also at fault for the six-month delay in paying Ms X the £200 it offered her in its final complaint response. The Council has agreed to apologise and make a further payment to remedy the injustice caused.

The complaint

1. Ms X complained about the Council’s handling of her housing matters. This included the Council’s delay in:
• carrying out homeless inquiries, providing suitable accommodation and accepting the housing duties after Ms X and her child Y reapproached the Council as homeless in March 2024; and
• paying Ms X the £200 it offered her in its final complaint response.
2. Ms X says this caused her distress, frustration and uncertainty as her housing needs went unmet for longer than necessary.

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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 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)
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(1), as amended)

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What I have and have not investigated

6. 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).
7. Some of Ms X’s complaint is late. She initially contacted the Council for housing assistance in January 2023 but did not come to us until May 2025. I have exercised discretion to go back as far as March 2024 which was the point Miss X notified the Council she was temporarily staying with a family member. I have referred to earlier events only as background to my investigation.
8. I have exercised discretion to go further than 12 months because she was taking the complaint through the Council’s complaints procedure and it delayed paying Ms X the £200 remedy it offered her as part of the stage two complaint response.

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How I considered this complaint

9. I considered evidence provided by Ms X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
10. Ms 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

Relevant law and guidance

Homelessness

11. 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.
12. If someone contacts a council seeking accommodation or help to obtain accommodation and gives ‘reason to believe’ they ‘may be’ homeless or threatened with homelessness within 56 days, the council has a duty to make inquiries into what, if any, further duty it owes them. The threshold for triggering the duty to make inquiries is low. The person does not have to complete a specific form or approach a particular department of the council. (Housing Act 1996, section 184 and Homelessness Code of Guidance paragraphs 6.2 and 18.5)
13. 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)
14. If, having made inquiries, the council is not satisfied an applicant is homeless, eligible, and in priority need, it will have no further accommodation duty.

The prevention duty

15. If a council is satisfied an applicant is threatened with homelessness and eligible for assistance, it must take steps to help the applicant keep their home or find somewhere new to live. In deciding what steps to take, a council must have regard to its assessment of the applicant’s case. (Housing Act 1996, section 195)

The relief duty

16. Councils must take reasonable steps to help to secure suitable accommodation for any eligible homeless person. When a council decides this duty has come to an end, it must notify the applicant in writing (Housing Act 1996, section 189B)

The main housing duty

17. If a council is satisfied an applicant is homeless, eligible for assistance, and has a priority need the council has a duty to make accommodation available (unless it refers the application to another housing authority under section 198). But councils will not owe the main housing duty to applicants who have turned down a suitable final accommodation offer or a Housing Act Part 6 offer made during the relief stage, or if a council has given them notice under section 193B(2) due to their deliberate and unreasonable refusal to co-operate. (Housing Act 1996, section 193 and Homelessness Code of Guidance 15.39)

What happened

18. In January 2023, Ms X submitted a homeless application as her and her child (Y) were threatened with homelessness. The Council assessed the application and accepted the prevention duty in August 2023.
19. In December 2023, the Council accepted the relief duty and provided Ms X with interim accommodation which was a hotel room. She reported to the Council that the hotel room had cockroaches and fleas. Because of this, Ms X and Y left the hotel.
20. The Council attempted to call Ms X once about this in March 2024 but there was no answer so it closed her homeless application.
21. The same month Ms X contacted the Council to notify it she was temporarily staying with a family member. She advised she had tried to go back to the hotel but the room was occupied by another tenant.
22. In June 2024, Ms X contacted the Council again to notify it she was staying with a family member but this was not permanent and she would have to leave soon.
23. The following month Ms X raised a stage one complaint about the Council’s failure to support them to resolve their homelessness. Ms X escalated this to stage two in September 2024.
24. The Council issued a stage two complaint response in October which said the following:
• After Ms X returned the Council’s contact in March 2024, it had not supported her to re-open her homeless application with the Council;
• The Council opened a new homeless application for her in September 2024 and within the next seven days the Council would undertake a full assessment;
• It arranged for housing officers to undertake further training regarding identifying homeless applications following loss of contact; and
• The Council would pay Ms X £200 to recognise the identified faults and asked her to provide her bank details.
25. The Council offered interim accommodation early December 2024 and it accepted the main housing duty at the end of December 2024.
26. Ms X provided her bank details to the Council in February 2025 so it could pay her the £200 financial remedy.
27. In April 2025, Ms X moved to a permanent two-bedroom property which she had successfully bid on.
28. The following month Ms X bought the matter to us as the Council had still not paid her the £200 it had offered her.

Council’s response to our enquiries

29. In response to the delays with issuing Ms X the £200 financial remedy, the Council this was an oversight by one of the complaints officers. It said the officer is currently undergoing further training. The Council said it paid Ms X the £200 in September 2025.
30. Following re-opening Ms X’s homeless application in September 2024, it said it offered her interim accommodation in December 2024 after it became clear her and Y were residing with a family member.

My findings

Delay in making homeless enquiries

31. In March 2024, Ms X notified the Council that she was temporarily living with a family member. The threshold for making homeless inquiries is low and this would have met that threshold. Therefore, the Council should have considered whether it had reason to believe Ms X was homeless or threatened with homeless. Failure to do so was fault. Had it made the inquiries, on a balance of probabilities, it would have concluded it was satisfied Ms X was homeless and decided to carry out an assessment.
32. Councils must complete an assessment if satisfied the applicant is eligible and either homeless or threatened with homelessness. There is no timescale in the law and guidance for when the Council must do the assessment but we expect it to carry this out within a reasonable timescale. As Ms X and Y were already homeless, we would have expected the Council to carry this out urgently.
33. The Council provided interim accommodation and decided it owed Ms X the main housing duty in December 2024 when it said it became apparent she was living with a family member. Ms X had been in the same situation since March 2024. Therefore, on a balance of probabilities, had the Council acted without fault, it would have provided interim accommodation, accepted the relief duty in April 2024 and then gone on to accept the main duty by June 2024.
34. From June 2024, it would have then had an immediate statutory duty to provide suitable temporary accommodation to Ms X. It failed to do this, leaving Ms X and Y in unsuitable accommodation for 7 months.
35. The Council allowed the matter to drift meaning Ms X’s housing needs went unmet for longer than necessary which caused distress, frustration and uncertainty.
36. The Council arranged for housing officers to undertake further training regarding identifying homeless applications following loss of contact. Therefore, a further service improvement is not required.

Failure to provide Ms X with financial remedy

37. The Council offered Ms X a financial remedy of £200 when it issued the stage two response. Following Ms X giving the Council her bank details in February 2025, we would have expected the Council to pay this within a reasonable timescale such as four weeks. Therefore the Council should have paid this by the end of March. The Council failed to pay this until September 2025 which was a delay of six months and fault. This caused Ms X distress, frustration and uncertainty.

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Action

38. Within one month of the final decision, the Council has agreed to:
1. Apologise to Ms X for the injustice caused by the faults identified in this decision. We publish guidance on remedies which sets out our expectations for how organisations should apologise effectively to remedy injustice. The Council should consider this guidance in making the apology I have recommended in my findings.
2. Provide evidence it paid the £200 to Ms X.
3. Pay Ms X £1350 which equates to £150 per month between April and December 2024. This is for each month Ms X and Y spent in unsuitable accommodation.
39. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

40. 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