London Borough of Barnet (22 017 352)

Statement Upheld Council tax 16-Apr-2023

Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s enforcement of a Council tax debt as the matter has been remedied.

London Borough of Barnet (22 012 211)

Statement Upheld Allocations 05-Jun-2023

Summary: Ms X complains on behalf of her father, Mr Y, that the Council failed to find suitable temporary accommodation despite knowing in advance the family was due to be evicted from their private rented property. We find the Council failed to act on its homelessness duties. These faults caused Mr Y distress and uncertainty. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mr Y and make a financial payment. This remedies the injustice caused.

London Borough of Barnet (23 001 090)

Statement Upheld Parking and other penalties 10-Jul-2023

Summary: There was delay by the Council in completing white line painting. This caused Ms X avoidable distress, inconvenience and time and trouble. There was no fault in the decision to refuse her request for an extended dropped kerb as the dropped kerb was already at the maximum permitted length. The Council will apologise, make a symbolic payment and give Ms X a date for completing the painting.

London Borough of Barnet (21 008 549)

Statement Upheld Enforcement 23-Jul-2023

Summary: Mrs X complained about the Council’s delay in taking planning enforcement action. We find there were periods of avoidable delay which caused Mrs X distress, uncertainty, and loss of residential amenity. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mrs X for the delays and make payments to her of £1100 to reflect her temporary loss of residential amenity and £300 for her distress and uncertainty. It will also put in place procedures to prevent long periods of case inactivity.

London Borough of Barnet (22 009 176)

Statement Upheld Enforcement 23-Jul-2023

Summary: Mrs X complains on behalf of Mr Y about the Council’s delay in taking planning enforcement action. We find there were periods of avoidable delay which caused Mr Y distress, uncertainty and loss of residential amenity. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mr Y for the delays and make payments to him of £1100 to reflect his temporary loss of residential amenity and £300 for uncertainty and distress caused. It will also put in place procedures to prevent long periods of case inactivity.

London Borough of Barnet (22 012 713)

Statement Upheld Allocations 26-Jul-2023

Summary: Ms X complains the Council has not dealt with her housing properly. The Council did not deal with her complaint according to its complaints policy. Ms X did not suffer any injustice as a result.

London Borough of Barnet (23 000 305)

Statement Upheld Allocations 03-Oct-2023

Summary: Miss X complained the Council failed to properly consider the suitability of her property and delayed an Occupational Therapy (OT) assessment. We found the Council had considered the affordability and noise issues Miss X raised. However, it delayed the OT assessment and does not appear to have considered exercising discretion regarding the length of time Miss X had been resident in its area. We recommended an apology, a payment and actions to put things right.

London Borough of Barnet (23 000 719)

Statement Upheld Council tax 08-Oct-2023

Summary: We found fault with the Council for the delay in sending the complainant (Ms X) her council tax bills and for providing insufficient support for Ms X when she tried to apply for Council Tax Support and Council Tax Discretionary Relief. This fault caused Ms X injustice. The Council agreed to apologise, make a symbolic payment to recognise Ms X’s distress and train its staff who deal with council tax enquiries.

London Borough of Barnet (23 003 999)

Statement Upheld Homelessness 11-Oct-2023

Summary: Ms X complains about how the Council dealt with her homelessness application. The Council is at fault as it failed to properly consider the risk of domestic abuse to Miss X when she made a homelessness application, failed to provide interim accommodation, delayed in dealing with her homelessness application and wrongly focussed on sustaining Miss X’s tenancy which was unsustainable. As a result, Miss X and her children lived in unsuitable accommodation for longer than necessary which caused significant distress to them. Miss X may also have missed an opportunity for settled housing. The Council has agreed to remedy this injustice by apologising to Miss X and making a symbolic payment of £2500 to her.

London Borough of Barnet (23 000 639)

Statement Upheld Council tax 24-Oct-2023

Summary: Mr X complains the Council has not dealt properly with his Council Tax charges. The Council is at fault because it has failed to collect his Council Tax properly and has sent him incorrect demands for payment resulting in enforcement action being taken. Mr X suffered avoidable distress and had to unnecessarily had to spend time addressing multiple errors. The Council has apologised and offered to pay Mr X £200. The Council has agreed to apologise for further errors, pay Mr X a further £200 for additional avoidable distress and £100 for his time and trouble, make an application to Court to set aside a liability order and review its systems/processes.