Summary: There was fault by the Council. It cannot show that it assessed the suitability of temporary accommodation before it moved Miss X and her children there; it later found that the accommodation was not suitable but did not move her from it; it did not do enough in good time to secure settled accommodation, and it did not recognise it had a duty to protect her belongings. The Council’s shortcomings meant Miss X stayed in unsuitable accommodation for six months and her disabled child could not get to school. She was caused distress and uncertainty. The Council acknowledged some fault and made a symbolic payment. It should make a further payment in recognition of the additional injustice I have found, and take steps to make sure the faults do not recur.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains about how the Council handled her housing situation. In particular, she says the Council:
• Put her in unsuitable emergency accommodation and failed to treat her requests that the Council move her as a request for a review;
• Failed to help her store her belongings when she had to move from previous emergency accommodation; and
• Failed to respond to her complaints in good time, nor address all the issues she had raised.
2. Miss X says that as a result of this, she and her children, including her disabled child, were left in unsuitable accommodation for six months. This meant that her son could not go to school, and caused Miss X and her family distress, uncertainty and frustration.

Back to top

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. 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)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

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

Back to top

What I found

The law and guidance

7. 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.
8. 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)
9. 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. (Housing Act 1996, section 206 and Homelessness Code of Guidance 17.2)
10. Councils must consider the location of accommodation when they consider if it is suitable for the applicant and members of their household. If a council places an applicant outside its district, it must consider, among other matters:

• the distance of the accommodation from the “home” district;
• the significance of any disruption to the education of members of the applicant’s household; and
• the proximity and accessibility to local services, amenities and transport. (Homelessness (Suitability of Accommodation) Order 2012)

11. Homeless applicants may request a review of the suitability of accommodation offered to the applicant after a homelessness duty has been accepted. 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)
12. Where the council owes or has owed certain housing duties to an applicant, it must protect the applicant’s personal property if there is a risk it may be lost or damaged. A council may make a reasonable charge for storage and reserve the right to dispose of the property if it loses contact with the applicant. (Housing Act 1996, section 211, Homelessness Code of Guidance chapter 20)

What happened

The housing situation

13. Miss X has young children, one of whom is disabled and has an Education Health and Care Plan that names the school he must go to and the special educational provision he needs.
14. Miss X fled domestic abuse and was given interim accommodation in a nearby district. The council for that district referred Miss X back to the London Borough of Brent (‘the Council’).
15. The Council assessed Miss X’s situation including the housing needs of her disabled son. It decided that it owed Miss X a main housing duty, and its medical assessor recommended that the family has a two-bedroom need, the disabled child does not need his own bedroom and that it would not be suitable to place the family in shared or B and B accommodation.
16. Miss X told the Council that the uncertainty and moving locations was affecting her disabled child, and she asked for help with moving and storing her belongings. The Council gave Miss X links to grants she could apply to help with the cost of storage but said that this was her responsibility.
17. At the beginning of March, the Council placed Miss X in one-bedroom self-contained accommodation. Miss X immediately raised with the Council that her son could not get to the school named in his Education Health and Care Plan and so would not be able to go to school. She also said that there was not enough sleeping space for them all, she felt unsafe in the local area due to drug users, and she has had to pile up her belongings in the flat. Mis X asked the Council to urgently review its decision that this was suitable accommodation.
18. Miss X’s case worker at the Council said a different team was responsible for the accommodation, but that it was all that was available, and that she and the children would have to sleep together in the bedroom and living area. The Council again said that Miss X would need to make her own arrangements to store her belongings and it did not address her concern that her son could not get to school.
19. In mid-April, the Council agreed that Miss X’s temporary accommodation was unsuitable. It apologised that it had not contacted her recently about her concerns and said that her case was now a priority.
20. The Council asked its medical advisor to assess whether Miss X’s child could change schools. The advisor recommended that the child be housed within a 45-minute journey of their school.
21. At the end of April, Miss X complained to the Council that it had not progressed her housing situation, had not provided a social worker for her child as promised, had not kept in touch with her and had not taken into account her safety and the domestic abuse she had suffered when it encouraged her to bid on properties close to her ex-partner. She asked the Council to move her urgently.
22. The Council took these steps to resolve Miss X’s housing situation:
• Sent Miss X a Personal Housing Plan and updated this to reflect that her child needs their own room.
• It says that on 9 May, it contacted a specific housing association at Miss X’s request but had been told that as this was in a different London borough, the Council could not nominate a tenant for these properties.
• On 21 May, it referred her to an external service that helps find accommodation for homeless families, and chased this up with the service when it had no response. The same day it referred Miss X to the council that had housed her previously but it refused the referral.
• On 7 August, it referred Miss X to its Private Rental Team to find a tenancy for her family.
• On 19 August, it asked its Emergency Accommodation Team to source a different property for Miss X as her current temporary accommodation was unsuitable.
23. Between April and September, the Council advised Miss X that she should look in the private rented sector for a property, and that the Council could help with rent in advance and a deposit. It told her she could not bid for houses on its housing register because these were all properties in Brent and she could not live there due to fear of domestic abuse, but she could apply for housing elsewhere even with no local connection as she had suffered domestic abuse. The Council told Miss X that it could consider her for a house with a housing association. At one point the Council also told Miss X that it could not reach out to other organisations on her behalf to seek housing, although it did do this. The Council also liaised with Miss X’s domestic abuse worker.
24. Miss X continued to contact the Council. She told the Council that the private rental sector was not stable and so was not a long-term solution. Miss X was clear that she remained in unsuitable housing and her disabled child could not get to the school named in their Education Health and Care Plan. Miss X tells me that she also sent the Council photographs of an insect infestation, and damp and mould in the property. She complained that there was not enough room as most her belongings were piled up in the flat, and there were drug users and antisocial behaviour in the area.
25. Miss X contacted the external service for homeless families, and was rehoused by this service at the beginning of September.

The complaints process

26. Miss X had complained to the Council at the end of April. She said the Council had not made progress on her housing situation, it had not taken into consideration that she was a survivor of domestic abuse, had a disabled child, and her mental health was deteriorating. Miss X said she was being pushed into unsuitable housing options, and that her current housing was putting her children’s wellbeing at risk. Miss X reminded the Council that it had said her child would be allocated a social worker, but this had not happened.
27. The Council responded on 22 May. It acknowledged that Miss X’s temporary accommodation was not suitable for her needs. It set out the steps it had taken. It said that the Council had responded to her contact with detailed advice and guidance, but had given some slightly confusing information about referrals to other schemes. The Council reiterated that it only has access to social housing in its own area, and Miss X cannot live in this area. It reiterated that it is most likely to end its housing duty by offering her suitable and affordable private rented housing. The Council said that it would contact her to offer a meeting to discuss her case, and she could ask for the complaint response to be reviewed at stage two of its process.
28. On 23 May, Miss X asked the Council to review the complaint response. She pointed out that she was still in unsuitable temporary accommodation. The Council did not respond to this and so Miss X complained to the Ombudsman. We asked the Council to complete its stage two review of Miss X’s complaint.
29. The Council said it was sorry that it had overlooked Miss X’s request for a review and that it had taken too long to respond. It said that when it offered Miss X the temporary one-bedroom flat, it told her she could request a review of this decision, but it did not tell her that she should do this via a specific email address and so she continued to contact her case worker about this. The Council said that it should have treated Miss X’s contact as a statutory review request, and that had it done this, it would most likely have found that her temporary accommodation was unsuitable by the end of April 2025. The Council paid Miss X £1,250 in recognition of the impact on her of being in unsuitable accommodation for too long.

Was there fault by the Council causing injustice to Miss X and her family?

30. The Council has acknowledged that it should have treated Miss X’s contact as a statutory request that it review the suitability of her temporary accommodation. It said that had it done so it is most likely that it would have found that she was in unsuitable accommodation.
31. However, the Council cannot show that it properly considered suitability of the accommodation before it moved Miss X there. It arranged a medical assessment and followed the assessor’s advice. However, the Council remained the decision maker, and the medical assessor’s recommendations should have been only part of how the Council decided if the property was suitable.
32. The Council cannot show how it considered how her disabled child would access the education set out in his Education Health and Care Plan. 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. Miss X was immediately very clear that her disabled child could not access their school. When the Council asked the medical assessor to review the child’s journey to school, they recommended that they live no more than 45 minutes from their school. It is likely that had the Council properly considered the suitability of the accommodation, including its location and the disabled child’s journey to school, it would not have placed Miss X’s family in this temporary accommodation.
33. In any case, having accepted in April that Miss X’s accommodation was not suitable, the Council should have moved her family to suitable accommodation immediately. The Council’s case notes suggest that it did not seek new accommodation until the middle of August, a further four months.
34. In all, Miss X was in unsuitable accommodation from the beginning of March to the beginning of September, six months in total.
35. Miss X raised several times that she had nowhere to store her belongings. The Council told her that this was her responsibility. However, as the Council had already accepted that it owed Miss X a housing duty, it had a legal duty to protect Miss X’s belongings if these were at risk of being lost due to her homelessness. Miss X found some affordable storage for some of her belongings. However, the Council’s shortcomings caused Miss X distress and inconvenience and added to the difficult time she had staying in the one-bedroom flat because storing her belongings there meant she and her three children had to share one bed.
36. Miss X is a survivor of domestic abuse, and this put some important restrictions on how the Council could resolve her homelessness, because it could not offer her accommodation in its own area (either private rented or from a social landlord). I also appreciate that Miss X was resistant to moving to private rented as her child needs stability. However, the Council cannot show that it did enough to meet its main housing duty; that is to secure accommodation.
37. The Council’s case notes suggest that it did not refer Miss X to the external service that eventually rehoused her until 21 May and it did not refer her to its private rental team for help with finding private accommodation until August. I appreciate that Miss X was reluctant to try these routes, but the Council cannot show that it took steps to secure her a property for some months, or tried any other routes that might have been available. It did not refer to its Domestic Abuse policy, and it was wrong to say that it was not its role to approach housing providers on her behalf. This leaves Miss X uncertain that her homelessness could have been resolved sooner.
38. The Council did not deal with Miss X’s complaint properly. It has acknowledged that it took too long to respond to her stage one complaint and it overlooked her request that it review her complaint at stage two of its process. The Council also failed to address her issues about storage and that her child did not have a social worker as agreed. In addition, the Council did not resolve the important issue of Miss X’s unsuitable temporary accommodation.
39. Miss X raised that her property had mould and insect infestations. She tells me that the Council said it would consider this, but there is no evidence that it recorded these issues on her case records or took any action to investigate what might be done to deal with these problems. This added to Miss X’s distress that the accommodation was unsuitable.

Back to top

Action

40. The Council has already paid Miss X £1,250 in recognition that it did not handle her housing situation properly. We recommend remedies in line with the Ombudsman’s published guidance. In addition the amount already paid, the Council will within one month of the date of my final decision:
• Apologise to Miss X for the distress that she was in unsuitable accommodation longer than necessary; the frustration and uncertainty caused by not resolving her situation sooner; the inconvenience of not advising Miss X of its duty to protect her belongings; and the time and trouble it put her to when it did not handle her complaint properly. 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.
• make a symbolic payment to Miss X of £250 in recognition of the time and trouble it put her to when it did not respond to her complaint fully or in good time.
• make a further symbolic payment of £850 in recognition that Miss X had to stay in unsuitable accommodation. This additional payment reflects the Ombudsman’s guidance on remedies, taking into account the disruption to the education of Miss X’s disabled child, that the Council did not address possible insect infestations and mould, and that Miss X had to store her belongings at the property.
41. The Council will within three months of the date of my final decision remind relevant staff by way of a team meeting item, training, or staff briefing that:
• It should be alert to requests for statutory reviews of suitability of accommodation; and
• The Council has a duty to protect a person’s belongings if they are at risk due to their homelessness.
42. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman