Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about how the Council dealt with his housing register application. Following Mr X’s complaint to us the Council has accepted it was at fault for failing to tell Mr X about his review rights. It has agreed to complete a review of its decision. We are satisfied with the action the Council has agreed to take. We cannot assess any injustice to Mr X until the Council has completed the review.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council failed to properly consider his homelessness and medical needs when it assessed his housing register application. He said that meant it has allocated him the wrong priority banding. Mr X said he had been sofa-surfing since September 2021 after he was evicted from his previous property. He said his physical and mental health had deteriorated. He wants the Council to provide him suitable accommodation.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we are satisfied with the actions an organisation has taken or proposes to take. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(7), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mr X complained about the support the Council provided him after he became homeless in September 2021. He also said the Council failed to consider his homelessness and medical need when it assessed his application to join the housing register. He said because of that it did not award him the correct priority banding.
6. In the Council’s complaint response, it accepted it was at fault for failing to contact Mr X between March 2022 and January 2023 after he contacted it for support. To It said it had since activated his housing application and backdated its start to the end of 2021.
7. If we were to investigate it is likely we would find further fault causing injustice as the Council failed to tell Mr X how he could ask for a review of its housing decision when it wrote to him in March 2023. We therefore asked the Council to consider remedying the injustice caused by completing a review of its housing decision within eight weeks of our final decision. To its credit the Council agreed to this action.
8. Mr X can return to the Ombudsman once the Council has completed that review. That is because we cannot assess any potential injustice caused to Mr X in how the Council dealt with his initial application until it has completed the review.

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Final decision

9. We have upheld this complaint because the Council has agreed to resolve the complaint early by completing a housing decision review.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman