Summary: The Council was at fault for failing to send Mrs X a letter confirming it owed her the main housing duty and advising her of her appeal rights. When the Council did assess the suitability of Mrs X’s temporary accommodation in response to her complaint it found it statutorily overcrowded, which was also fault. The Council has agreed to make a payment to Mrs X to acknowledge the frustration caused by the poor communication and the impact on the family of living in overcrowded accommodation for longer than they should have. It has also agreed to review how it procures temporary accommodation to ensure it has sufficient information about the size and suitability of properties.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained the Council placed her and her family in unsuitable temporary accommodation. She also complained that the Council failed to inform her of her review rights and ignored a review request for over 10 months. Mrs X says this had a significant impact on the mental and physical health of her family.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. 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.
4. 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). Mrs X complained to us in September 2025. I have considered what happened since April 2024 when the Council accepted it owed Mrs X the main housing duty and the property became temporary accommodation as Mrs X was not notified of this decision so was not aware of her rights of review.
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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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered evidence provided by Mrs X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
7. I gave Mrs X and the Council an opportunity to comment on a draft of my decision. I considered any comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

Relevant law and guidance

Homelessness

8. 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.
9. If a council has reason to believe an applicant may be homeless, eligible for assistance and have a priority need it must secure them with interim accommodation. (Housing Act 1996, section 188)
10. If a council is satisfied an applicant is homeless, eligible for assistance, and has a priority need the council has a duty to ensure that suitable accommodation is available to them. (Housing Act 1996, section 193). This is called the main housing duty, and the accommodation is called temporary accommodation.
11. Homelessness temporary accommodation must be legally suitable. (Housing Act 1996, section 206) Anyone who believes their temporary accommodation is unsuitable can ask the Council to review the accommodation’s suitability. (Housing Act 1996, section 202)
12. Councils must complete reviews regarding the suitability of accommodation within eight weeks of the date of the review request. These periods can be extended if the applicant agrees in writing.
13. If the Council’s review decides the accommodation is unsuitable, the Council must provide suitable accommodation. If the review decides the accommodation is suitable, the applicant has the right to appeal to the county court on a point of law. (Housing Act 1996, section 204)

Statutory overcrowding

14. The Housing Act 1985 sets out rules for when a property is considered statutorily overcrowded. The room standard is based on the number of people sharing a property. The space standard refers to the size of rooms. A room available for sleeping includes a bedroom or living room. Children under the age of one are not included in the space standard. Children aged between one and under ten are counted as 0.5 of a unit.

Background

15. In January 2024 Mrs X approached the Council as homeless. It provided interim accommodation for her, her husband and three children. The property had two bedrooms and an open plan kitchen/living area.

What happened

16. In early April the Council accepted it owed Mrs X and her family the main housing duty. Mrs X and her family remained in the same accommodation but it became temporary accommodation. Mrs X says the Council never provided her with a letter setting out it owed her the main housing duty, with her right to request a review of the suitability of the temporary accommodation. The Council, in response to my enquiries, confirmed it had produced a letter but it did not send this to Mrs X. In June 2024 Mrs X had another child.
17. Mrs X contacted the Council in December 2024 to request a statutory suitability review based on the size and layout of the property. In January 2025 the Council placed Mrs X on its transfer list as it considered the property overcrowded. There is no evidence the Council notified Mrs X of this. Mrs X contacted the Council again in May 2025 asking about the progress of the suitability review.
18. The temporary accommodation team contacted Mrs X the following week and told her it had added her to the transfer list in January 2025 and that a member of the team would contact her when a property became available.
19. Mrs X complained to the Council about its failure to provide suitable temporary accommodation. The Council responded in July 2025. It upheld the complaint. It said an officer had inspected the property earlier that month and confirmed it was statutory overcrowded. It said it had referred her for move on support with finding her own private rented accommodation.
20. Mrs X remained unhappy and in August 2025 asked to go to the next stage of the Council’s complaints procedure. She said she had not had a suitability review and had no effective remedy even though the Council upheld the complaint.
21. The Council responded to Mrs X in September 2025. It said it was unable to find records of a suitability review request. It accepted the property was not suitable for a family of six. It said the Council had referred Mrs X to its move on team and did not uphold the complaint. Mrs X remained unhappy and complained to us. She said the overcrowded conditions had particularly impacted one of her children who has special educational needs.
22. In October 2025 the Council identified a suitable house for Mrs X and her family. It made a direct offer in November 2025, ending its homelessness duty and the family moved in the following month.
23. In response to my enquiries the Council said the household was authorised for temporary accommodation after it completed a housing needs assessment. In assessing the accommodation size it said the property had two bedrooms and a living room so had three sleeping areas. At the time the family moved in, they counted as three and a half units (due to the age of the children) under the space standard and so was suitable based on the number of rooms. It said a later inspection identified due to the room sizes it was only large enough for three and so was statutorily overcrowded. It said the likely reason for the allocation was a lack of detail of the room sizes and the availability of suitable alternative accommodation on that day.

Findings

24. The Council failed to send the letter to Mrs X confirming it owed her the main housing duty and confirming that her interim accommodation was now temporary accommodation with statutory review rights. This was fault which caused Mrs X frustration and denied her a right of review about the suitability of the accommodation.
25. Following previous complaints we have investigated about this Council, it agreed to review its procedures for communicating decisions on housing and homelessness applications and notifying applicants of their review rights. So I have not made a similar recommendation on this case. We will continue to monitor the Council’s performance through our case work.
26. When Mrs X asked for a statutory review the Council did not treat it as such because it was over 21 days since it had accepted it owed the family the main housing duty. The Council says it carried out a non-statutory review but there is no documentation in support of this. The failure to record any information about the assessment is fault. The Council records show it placed the family on the transfer list in January 2025 as a result of this assessment, but it failed to advise Mrs X of the outcome of the review or its decision until after she submitted a formal complaint. This is poor administrative practice and is fault.
27. When, in response to her complaint, the Council assessed Mrs X’s property it confirmed it was statutorily overcrowded and was not suitable for the size of the family. This has been the case from the day they moved in, and the family became more overcrowded once Mrs X’s fourth child turned one in 2025. The Council’s failure to properly assess the property’s size before it allocated it to the family is fault which meant Mrs X and her family were living in statutorily overcrowded conditions for much longer than they should have been; 20 months.

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Agreed Action

28. Within one month of the final decision the Council has agreed to apologise to Mrs X and pay her £3,000 (£150 a month for 20 months between April 2024 and November 2025) to acknowledge the frustration and uncertainty caused by the poor communication and the significant impact on Mrs X and her family of living in statutorily overcrowded accommodation.
29. Within two months of the final decision the Council has agreed to:
1. review its procurement procedures for temporary accommodation to ensure it has adequate information about room sizes to ensure its suitability before allocating temporary accommodation. The Council should tell the Ombudsman of the outcome of its review, what steps it has identified it will take, and when by.
2. Provide training or guidance to relevant staff on the need to keep adequate records of informal suitability reviews and the reasons for any decision reached on suitability.
30. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

31. I find fault causing injustice which the Council has agreed to remedy.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman