Summary: X complained that the Council failed to properly respond to reports their rental accommodation suffered from disrepair and the landlord harassed and attempted to illegally evict X. We find the Council failed to properly consider its powers to tackle landlord harassment and retaliatory eviction, which caused X significant distress and risk of harm. The Council has agreed to apologise, make a symbolic payment to X and implement service improvements to remedy the injustice.

The complaint

1. X complains about the Council’s handling of concerns about their rental accommodation and behaviour of the landlord. X complains the Council failed to:

• Take appropriate action when they notified the Council that the landlord was not dealing with disrepair in the home.
• Take appropriate action when X notified the Council the landlord, and others on the landlord’s behalf harassed, assaulted and wrongly evicted them.
• Properly deal with complaints about an officer’s conduct.

2. X says the Council’s failure to intervene earlier led to significant injustice including living in a property with disrepair, mental impact causing depression and anxiety, having to withdraw from studies, being the victim of assault and having to find alternative accommodation. X would like the Council to acknowledge the mental impact and apologise for its failure to intervene in crucial events.

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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. We cannot investigate a complaint if it is about a personnel issue. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5a, paragraph 4, as amended)

5. 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)
6. We normally expect someone to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner if they have a complaint about data protection. However, we may decide to investigate if we think there are good reasons. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
7. 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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What I have and have not investigated

8. I have investigated X’s complaint about the Council’s responses to reports of disrepair, harassment and wrongful eviction.
9. However, some of the reports of disrepair occurred more than 12 months before X complained to us in July 2024. I have decided there are not good reasons why X did not complain about these matters sooner and have not investigated issues that occurred before July 2023, as laid out in paragraph 5.
10. X has complained about ongoing issues that occurred after they complained to us in July 2024. The end date of my investigation can be no later than the date X complained to us and therefore I have not investigated matters that occurred after that date.
11. As set out in paragraph 4, by law, we cannot investigate complaints personnel matters. I have therefore not investigated X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of an officer’s conduct.
12. X complained about the Council’s approach to data protection. I have decided there are not good reasons why I should investigate this because the Information Commissioner is better placed to do so. X can complain to the Information Commissioner, as laid out in paragraph 6.

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How I considered this complaint

13. I considered evidence provided by X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
14. X and the Council had the opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered their comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

15. As a publicly funded body we must be careful how we use our resources. We conduct proportionate investigations; completing them when we consider we have enough evidence to make a sound decision. This means we do not try to answer every single question a complainant may have about what the organisation did.
16. The amount of information provided by X and the Council was considerable. In this decision, I have not referred to every element of that information, but I have not ignored its significance.

Houses in multiple occupation (HMO)

17. An HMO is a property rented out by at least three people who are not from one household but share facilities like the bathroom and kitchen. The Housing Act 2004 requires mandatory licensing by local authorities of large HMOs (all buildings or parts of buildings housing 5 or more people in two or more households). The licence conditions prevent overcrowding and ensure that HMOs are of the appropriate standard, fit for purpose, and that landlords address anti-social behaviour by tenants. Breach of these conditions can be an offence.

Relevant law and guidance regarding complaints by tenants of disrepair

18. Private tenants may complain to their council about a failure by the landlord to keep the property in good repair. Local authorities have powers under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (introduced by the Housing Act 2004, Part 1) to take enforcement action against private landlords where the council has identified a hazard which puts the health and safety of the tenant at risk. If a council considers a category 1 hazard exists in residential premises they must take appropriate enforcement action (Housing Act 2004, section 5). Councils have discretion to take enforcement action if a category 2 hazard is identified.
19. The Government issued The Rogue Landlord Enforcement Guidance in April 2019 about councils’ powers and options to tackle rogue landlords in the private rented sector.   

Relevant law and guidance regarding complaints by tenants of retaliatory eviction or harassment and illegal by their landlord

20. When a tenant complains of disrepair and a council serves a relevant notice on a landlord, such as an Improvement Notice or a Notice of Emergency Remedial Action, the tenant may be protected from retaliatory eviction (Deregulation Act 2015).
21. Regardless of complaints of disrepair, private tenants may complain to their council if their landlord is harassing and trying to evict them. Local authorities have powers to investigate complaints of harassment and illegal eviction, and to prosecute a landlord where he or she commits an offence. (Protection from Eviction Act 1977).
22. The Rogue Landlord Enforcement Guidance also provides relevant guidance about this area.   
23. The Ombudsman has published a complaint factsheet titled Complaints about harassment or illegal eviction by your private landlord aimed at people living in private rented accommodation who are being harassed or threatened with eviction by their landlord.

What happened

24. X was a tenant at an HMO. The property was licensed by the Council under its HMO licensing scheme.
25. In November and December 2023 X complained to the Council about disrepair issues. X sent the Council photographs. X raised concerns about the landlord harassing them. The Council inspected the property. It is unclear if any category 1 or category 2 hazards were identified.
26. In December the Council and landlord emailed one another about various disrepair issues. The issues included insufficient fridge freezers, missing tiles in the shower area, faulty radiators and the low water pressure affecting the water supply.
27. In February 2024 the Council inspected the property again. It identified the issue with the water pressure was still present and told the landlord it needed to be rectified immediately. It also found other issues, some of which had been identified in 2023. It emailed the landlord about the issues. It is unclear if the Council decided if any of the issues were category 1 or category 2 hazards.
28. X continued to complain to the Council about disrepair issues at the property. X also told the Council several times that they were being harassed by the landlord and people on the landlord’s behalf. X asked the Council to not tell the landlord that it was X raising the disrepair concerns. X contacted the Council in person at drop-in sessions, and also by contacting the Council’s Housing and Antisocial Behaviour Teams.
29. In May the Council inspected the property again and spoke to X, other tenants, and a representative of the landlord. The Council identified issues with the property that required repairs. This included the low water pressure that it had told the landlord needed to be addressed immediately in February.
30. X made an audio recording of part of the visit which shows the following matters were known to the Council:

• There was disrepair that required action.
• The landlord had had enough of all the complaints.
• The landlord might issue eviction notices.

31. Later on the same day of the inspection the landlord emailed the Council about the repairs. The landlord told the Council he had asked X to leave, and would be issuing X with an eviction notice.
32. A few days later in May, X contacted the Council. X said that since the Council’s visit the landlord had been threatening X to leave the property and had sent a section 21 notice requiring possession of the property. X said the threats had got worse since the Council had told the landlord that X was the tenant that had complained about the disrepair. X sent the Council screenshots of text messages they said they had received from a person on behalf of the landlord. The messages say:

• The landlord wanted X to leave by the end of the month.
• The Council had told the landlord that X was the one always complaining.

33. The Council referred X to an organisation it contracted to provide advocacy, advice and support to people with housing issues.
34. Also in May the Council served an Improvement Notice on the landlord regarding the disrepair it had identified during the inspection. It listed various Category 2 Hazards, and recorded the low water pressure as a Category 1 Hazard.
35. In June X was physically assaulted by the landlord or a person known to the landlord. The police were involved. The person admitted they had assaulted X. X told the Council the landlord had assaulted them and provided evidence.
36. X complained to the Council about its handling of their reports. The focus of the complaint at that stage was about an individual council officer’s alleged conduct. The Council provided written responses. We cannot investigate disciplinary issues so I have not considered this in my investigation. However, it is relevant to my investigation that the Council’s responses do not mention its powers or tenants’ legal protections regarding landlord harassment and retaliatory evictions.
37. X has since left the house and the Council’s area.

Analysis

The Council’s response to complaints of disrepair

38. The Council contacted the landlord several times about disrepair and inspected the property three times between November 2023 and May 2024. This resulted in the landlord making some repairs and improvements but some issues were not resolved.
39. The Council was made aware of the water pressure complaint in December 2023 but I have seen no evidence it properly assessed the severity until May when it recorded it as a category 1 hazard and served the Improvement Notice. I find the Council’s delays in recording the category of the hazard and taking enforcement action was fault which caused X injustice in the form of avoidable distress, inconvenience and frustration.

The Council’s response to complaints of harassment and eviction

40. X repeatedly asked the Council to not disclose their identity to the landlord when they raised complaints of disrepair. X told the Council this was because they were being harassed by the landlord and others acting on the landlord’s behalf.
41. I note X then told the Council the harassment escalated after the Council’s visit in May. X provided it with evidence that indicated the Council had told the landlord X was the source of the concerns of disrepair. The Council also became aware X was physically assaulted by a person known to the landlord in June.
42. I have found no evidence the Council considered its specific legal powers regarding landlord harassment and illegal eviction under the Protection from Eviction Act 1977, nor provide advice regarding protections from retaliatory eviction under the Deregulation Act 2015 during its handling of X’s reports. I find its failure to have due regard to these powers and protections, and to provide X and the landlord relevant information, is fault which caused X injustice in the form of significant distress, stress and frustration.
43. In this case I have found fault that has caused unremedied injustice and have decided to recommend a personal remedy in the form of a symbolic payment to X. I have also decided to recommend service improvements so the Council can learn from the fault to prevent likely injustice to others in the future. These recommendations are in line with our Guidance on Remedies.

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Action

44. Within 4 weeks of the date of the decision the Council will:

• Apologise to X. 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 X £250 for the injustice.

45. Within 12 weeks of the date of the decision the Council will:

• Create and implement a policy regarding its powers to respond to complaints of harassment and illegal eviction and retaliatory evictions by private landlords. The policy should specify which team or teams are responsible for identifying potential victims, investigating, and providing information and advice.
• Put a plan in place to ensure:
1. An accurate record is prepared and kept of any inspection of a residential premises, that includes a record of whether the Council consider any category 1 or 2 hazards exist.
2. Where the Council considers that a category 1 hazard exists; it must take the appropriate enforcement action as laid out in section 5 of the Housing Act 2005.

46. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

47. I have completed my investigation and uphold X’s complaint. I find fault causing injustice as described in the analysis section. The Council has agreed actions to remedy injustice.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman