Homelessness applications
This fact sheet is aimed primarily at people who are, or may become, homeless and may be considering making a complaint to the Ombudsman.
I am homeless or will become homeless soon and the council is not dealing with my application properly. Can the Ombudsman help me?
Yes in some circumstances. We can consider your complaint if you have told a council you are homeless or threatened with homelessness, and you think it has made a mistake in dealing with your application and this is the reason you have not found alternative accommodation, or it has caused you other problems.
We cannot overturn a decision made by a council on your homelessness application. For example, if the council has written to tell you that you are not homeless, or not in a priority need group, and it has no duty to find you somewhere to live, we would usually expect you to use the review and appeal procedure to challenge that decision.
We would also expect you to use the review and appeal procedure for certain decisions including:
- the council's decision to bring its prevention or relief duty to an end
- the council's decision you have deliberately and unreasonably refused to co-operate
- the steps the council will take to help you, which itlists in your personalised housing plan
How do I complain?
You should normally complain to the council first. Councils often have more than one stage in their complaints procedure and you will usually have to complete all stages before we will look at your complaint.
Then, if you are unhappy with the outcome, or the council is taking too long to look into the matter – we think 12 weeks is reasonable – you can complain to us.
Usually, you should complain to us within 12 months of when you first knew about the problem. If you leave it any later, we may not be able to help.
For more information on how to complain, please read our step by step process
It is important that we can keep in contact if you have no permanent address and you move around. If you give us a mobile telephone number or email address that will make it much easier for us to keep in touch with you.
If you consider my complaint what will the Ombudsman look for?
We have to decide whether the council has done something wrong in the way it handled your application and whether this has caused you a problem. Some of the issues we can look at are if the council:
- does not let you make a homelessness application or fails to recognise that your request should be treated as a homelessness application
- fails to make proper enquiries or makes unreasonable requests for you to provide evidence before it agrees to look at your application
- does not ask Children's Services to help assess your needs if you are 16 or 17 years old and you make a homelessness application
- breaches the law that says the maximum time a family with children can stay in bed and breakfast accommodation with shared facilities is six weeks
- does not give you information and advice on things such as preventing homelessness, your rights and the council's duties, and what help is available
- does not agree a personalised housing plan with you, or does not review that plan when things change
- does not provide support to prevent you becoming homeless when you are threatened with homelessness, or to help you find accommodation if you are already homeless
- takes far too long to deal with your application and reach a decision
- wrongly closes your application or treats it as having been withdrawn
- fails to provide you with interim accommodation while it makes enquiries, if it has reason to believe you may be homeless and in priority need
- places you in unsuitable interim accommodation while it makes enquiries into your application, or fails to deal with repair problems in your temporary accommodation
- loses, damages or destroys your personal belongings while they are in storage or fails to help you protect your possessions, and
- fails to give you a written decision on your application and does not tell you about your legal right to ask for a review or an appeal.
What happens if the Ombudsman finds the council was at fault?
If we find that the council did something wrong in the way it handled your application, and that you were affected by this, we will ask the council to review the application and correct its mistakes. For example if the council:
- did not make proper enquiries and so it misunderstood your true circumstances, we would ask it to take steps to put this right and to apologise to you, or
- has taken too long to make enquiries and reach a decision on your homelessness application, we will ask it to complete its enquiries and issue a decision promptly.
However, there will be times when a homeless person suffers real hardship because of a council’s mistake and the clock cannot be turned back to put this right. For example, we may find that someone was homeless and in priority need but the council did not arrange temporary accommodation, and so he or she had to sleep rough instead. In these circumstances, we are likely to ask the council to make a payment.
The facts will be different in each complaint and we consider each case carefully to decide on a remedy.
Sometimes we find that a council’s policy and procedures for dealing with homelessness applications are flawed or that officers have not been given proper training and guidance. We may recommend that the council reviews its procedures or arranges training for staff so that other homeless people do not go through the problems you have experienced.
Examples of some complaints we have considered
Jane complained to us about the council placing her family in unsuitable temporary accommodation after they became homeless. She also complained about the council not giving her housing register application sufficient priority, among other issues.
We decided we would not investigate Jane’s complaint. This was because the law gave Jane the right to appeal the suitability of her accommodation to the county court (Housing Act 1996, section 204). We decided it was reasonable for Jane to use that right so we would not also consider a complaint about the matter. We also found the council had placed Jane’s housing register application into the highest priority band after she complained to us. As this was the outcome Jane wanted from complaining to us, we could not achieve anything further by investigating this matter.
Neil had a history of mental ill-health. He approached the council because the family member he lived with was selling their home. He asked for help to find somewhere else to live.
The council did not take any action.
Next month, and just two days before Neil had to leave, the council completed an assessment and told him what to do on the day he became homeless. It offered no support to prevent his homelessness.
Because of the stress and uncertainty of his situation Neil took himself to hospital, concerned for his mental health and safety. He was admitted for two weeks.
The council told us there was nothing it could have done to prevent Neil’s homelessness. It said because he was asked to leave by a family member, there was no prevention work it could do.
We found fault because the council failed to try to prevent Neil’s homelessness by helping him look for alternative accommodation. Its approach to Neil’s case indicated the council did not understand the extent of the prevention duty.
The council agreed to apologise to Neil, make him a symbolic payment for his distress and uncertainty, and review its procedures to ensure it fully complies with its prevention duties.
Jared told the council his landlord had asked him to leave the property in early January. Jared has several physical and mental health conditions which affect his day-to-day life.
The council accepted the relief duty in early February and issued a personal housing plan (PHP).
Jared’s landlord evicted him four days later. Jared tried to contact his worker at the council but could not reach anyone.
A few weeks later, with help from a representative, Jared asked the council for accommodation and a review of his PHP. The council did not respond.
Jared contacted the council again in early March. The council then provided interim accommodation. It said his case officer was on leave when Jared sought help in February.
Our investigation found the council should have provided interim accommodation on the day Jared was evicted.
As a result of its failure, Jared spent more than a month sleeping on the streets. The council agreed to apologise and make a payment to Jared to reflect the distress and risk of harm caused by having to sleep on the streets. The council also agreed to identify measures to make sure it can respond to applicants when their assigned case officer is on leave.
Other sources of information
If you are in a crisis and you need immediate practical help or advice on your legal rights you can contact Shelter who run a free national telephone advice line (0808 800 4444) and have a network of housing aid centres across England – you can find out more at www.shelter.org.uk.
Law centres, Citizens Advice Bureaux and independent housing advice centres may also be able to help you.
The Civil Legal Advice telephone number is 0345 345 4345.
Our fact sheets give some general information about the most common type of complaints we receive but they cannot cover every situation. If you are not sure whether we can look into your complaint, please contact us.
June 2024