Summary: The Council significantly delayed assessing Mr B’s brother-in-law’s housing application and delayed carrying out a home visit to establish who was living in Mr B’s house. The Council’s delays contributed to Mr B’s family living in significantly overcrowded conditions. The Council has agreed to make a payment to Mr B and to take action to prevent similar failings in future.

The complaint

1. Mr B complains about failings in the way the Council has dealt with his brother-in-law’s housing application. In particular, he says that his brother-in-law, Mr X, has been unable to bid on properties whilst waiting for a home visit to be carried out to assess the overcrowded conditions.
2. Mr B says that as a result, Mr X’s family have had to remain living in his home, which is significantly overcrowded.

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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 an injustice, 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(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I have:
• considered the complaint and the documents provided by the complainant;
• discussed the issues with Mrs B;
• made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council has provided; and
• given the Council and the complainant the opportunity to comment on my draft decision.

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What I found

The Council’s Housing Allocations Scheme

6. The Council operates a choice-based lettings scheme. Housing applicants can bid on available properties.
7. The Council places applicants who qualify to join the housing register in a priority band from Band 1 (highest priority) to Band 4 (lowest priority). This priority is the first factor the Council uses to allocate a property.
8. The award date is the date on which a higher priority band applied. It is used to prioritise between applicants within the same band.
9. The Council awards Band 1 when the applicant’s household is lacking three bedrooms in their current accommodation. It awards Band 2 when they are lacking two bedrooms.

Homeless legislation

10. A person should be treated as homeless if it is not reasonable for them to continue to occupy their accommodation and no other accommodation is available to them. (Housing Act 1996, section 175)
11. Housing authorities must secure interim accommodation for housing applicants and their household if they have reason to believe they may be homeless, eligible for assistance and have a priority need. (Housing Act 1996, section 188)
12. Where an applicant rejects an offer of interim accommodation, this will bring the housing authority’s interim accommodation duty to an end – unless it is reactivated by any change of circumstances. (Homelessness Code of Guidance 15.22)

Background and summary of events

13. Mr and Mrs B have three children and live in the four-bedroom house that they own.
14. Mr B’s sister and brother-in-law, Mr and Mrs X, and their four children moved into Mr and Mrs B’s house when they were homeless. They applied to the Council for housing and were accepted onto the Council’s housing register.
15. In January 2020, Mr X submitted a change of circumstances form to notify the Council that Mr B’s mother had moved into the house. At the time, Mr X was in priority Band 2 due to overcrowding, with a need for a four-bedroom property.
16. In June 2021, the Council decided that it needed to carry out a home visit to verify Mr X’s household composition. His housing application was suspended pending the outcome of the visit and he was unable to bid.
17. The Council carried out the home visit in February 2022. Mr X was then awarded Band 1 due to severe overcrowding and he was able to bid for properties again.

Analysis

18. We consider councils should assess housing applications within four to six weeks. In this case, the change of circumstances form was submitted on 17 January 2020, but the assessment did not commence until December 2020.
19. The Council did not complete its assessment at that time and took no further action until June 2021, when it decided it needed to carry out a home visit. The Council then delayed carrying out the home visit and so the assessment was not completed until February 2022, over two years after the change of circumstances form was submitted. This was fault.
20. The information submitted in January 2020 resulted in a Band 1 award, because it showed that Mr X’s family was lacking three bedrooms in their accommodation. However, the Council’s delays resulted in Mr X remaining in Band 2 until February 2022 and being unable to bid at all between June 2021 and February 2022.
21. I have considered whether Mr X would likely have been offered a property if there had been no fault by the Council. Mr X’s bidding history shows that he has only bid on properties very close to Mr and Mrs B’s house. Since Mr X submitted the change of circumstances form in January 2020, two four-bedroom properties in this area have been offered to applicants in Band 2 and two four-bedroom properties have been offered to applicants in Band 1 with award dates in late 2020. I consider Mr X missed out on these four properties as a result of the Council’s delays.
22. Where we find evidence of fault, we consider how the complainant has been affected by it, and whether they have contributed to their own injustice. If there had been no delay by the Council in awarding Band 1 to Mr X, I consider it likely that Mr X would have been offered a property in around July 2020, which would have significantly improved Mr B’s family’s living conditions.
23. However, I do not consider the Council is responsible for Mr B’s family continuing to live in overcrowded conditions since February 2022. This is because, since then, several four-bedroom properties in Mr X’s preferred areas have been advertised and most of them were offered to applicants with less priority than Mr X. And so Mr X and his family could have moved out sooner if he had bid on more properties since he was awarded Band 1 in February 2022.
24. The Council considers Mr X to be homeless because it is not reasonable for him to continue to occupy his current accommodation. It has recently invited Mr X to make a homelessness application and offered to provide him with interim accommodation, but he has decided to stay living with Mr and Mrs B until he secures accommodation through the choice based letting system. The Council should have given Mr X this option sooner. However, I do not consider this fault caused Mr and Mrs B any significant injustice, because it is likely that they would have allowed Mr X’s family to continue to live with them, rather than move into interim accommodation.
25. While I recognise that Mr B could have told Mr X and his family to leave, it is understandable that they did not do so, given the family connection. I consider the Council’s delays contributed to Mr and Mrs B living in significantly overcrowded conditions for 19 months.

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Agreed action

26. Within four weeks, the Council will:
• Apologise to Mr B for the failings identified in this case.
• Make a payment of £2850 to Mr B. This is to recognise the 19 months (July 2020 to February 2022) that Mr B and his family have been living in severely overcrowded conditions as a result of the Council’s failings.
• Backdate Mr X’s award date to 28 February 2020 (six weeks after the change of circumstances form was submitted).
27. Within eight weeks, the Council will:
• Explain why no action was taken between the assessment commencing in December 2020 and the Council deciding to carry out a home visit in June 2021 and provide details of the action it will take to prevent such failings in future.
• Review its procedures to ensure that home visits are carried out in a timely manner and applicants are not prevented from bidding while they are waiting for a home visit.
• Review its procedures to ensure that housing applicants are offered interim accommodation if the Council has reason to believe they may be homeless, eligible for assistance and have a priority need. This duty applies to housing and homelessness applicants.
28. The Council has accepted that it has ongoing delays in processing and reviewing housing applications due to unprecedented demand. It has provided us with a copy of its action plan to reduce the timescales for assessing new applications, which includes a full-scale restructure and extensive recruitment.
29. The Council has recently agreed to provide an updated action plan to show how it proposes to reduce delays in processing all applications and review requests. It has also agreed to provide an updated report to show the improvements made since the first action plan was sent to us.

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Final decision

30. I have completed my investigation and uphold Mr B’s complaint. There was fault by the Council which caused injustice. The action the Council has agreed to take is sufficient to remedy that injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman