Summary: Mr B complained that the Council failed to take any effective action on his homeless application from March 2023 until March 2024 or respond to his complaint about the matter. It also suspended his bidding account, so he was unable to bid on available properties. We have found fault with the Council’s actions. The Council has agreed to take a fresh application from Mr B now, apologise to him, pay him £1000 and improve its procedures for the future.

The complaint

1. Mr B complained that North Northamptonshire Council (the Council) failed to:
• deal with Mr B’s homeless application in accordance with the law and guidance;
• assess his situation, assist him or advise him in finding accommodation;
• stopped communicating with him in September 2023 despite acknowledging fault in the handling of his case;
• respond to his stage two complaint at all despite assuring us it would do so;
• closed his case recently over the telephone with no written notification; and
• suspended his application on the bidding system and reduced his banding.
2. This has caused Mr B significant distress and frustration. He has been staying with friends and sofa-surfing for over a year.

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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. 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, made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided. Mr B and the organisation had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

Homelessness

Threatened with homelessness

6. Someone is threatened with homelessness if, when asking for assistance from the council on or after 3 April 2018:
• they are likely to become homeless within 56 days; or
• they have been served with a valid Section 21 notice which will expire within 56 days. (Housing Act 1996, section 175(4) & (5)

Assessments and Personal Housing Plans

7. Councils must complete an assessment if they are satisfied an applicant is homeless or threatened with homelessness. The Code of Guidance says, rather than advise the applicant to return when homelessness is more imminent, the housing authority may wish to accept a prevention duty and begin to take reasonable steps to prevent homelessness. Councils must notify the applicant of the assessment. Councils should work with applicants to identify practical and reasonable steps for the council and the applicant to take to help the applicant keep or secure suitable accommodation. These steps should be tailored to the household, and follow from the findings of the assessment, and must be provided to the applicant in writing as their personalised housing plan. (Housing Act 1996, section 189A and Homelessness Code of Guidance paragraphs 11.6 and 11.18)

The prevention duty

8. If councils are satisfied applicants are threatened with homelessness and eligible for assistance, they must help the applicants to secure that accommodation does not stop being available for their occupation. In deciding what steps they are to take, councils must have regard to their assessments of the applicants’ cases. (Housing Act 1996, section 195)

The relief duty

9. Councils must take reasonable steps to help to secure suitable accommodation for any eligible homeless person. When a council decides this duty has come to an end, it must notify the applicant in writing (Housing Act 1996, section 189B)

The main housing duty

10. If a council is satisfied an applicant is homeless, eligible for assistance, and has a priority need the council has a duty to secure that accommodation is available for their occupation (unless it refers the application to another housing authority under section 198).

Review rights

11. Homeless applicants may request a review within 21 days of being notified of a number of decisions, including the following:
• their eligibility for assistance;
• what duty (if any) is owed to them if they are found to be homeless or threatened with homelessness;
• the steps they are to take in their personalised housing plan at the prevention duty stage;
• giving notice to bring the prevention duty to an end;
• the steps they are to take in their personalised housing plan at the relief duty stage; and
• giving notice to bring the relief duty to an end.

Council’s complaints process

12. The Council says it will acknowledge complaints at stage one within three days and respond to them within four weeks. It then says request to escalate to stage two should be made within four weeks and the Council will then respond to the stage two complaint within another four weeks.

What happened

13. Mr B made an online application to the Council on 30 March 2023 as he was threatened with homelessness. A family member had given him six weeks’ notice to leave their property. He said he had clinical depression.
14. The housing register team verified his application and on 27 April 2023 activated his bidding account in Band C due to non-urgent medical needs. It asked Mr B to provide medical evidence to support this application. It also sent an email to the homeless team asking for an update on progress with the application so it could place him in the correct band depending on his homeless status.
15. On the 10 May 2023 the Council tried to contact Mr B but was unsuccessful. On 11 May 2023 the allocations team contacted Mr B’s caseworker to say he was now homeless from 4 May 2023 with no fixed abode and again asked for an update on his homeless application. The housing officer said they would contact Mr B. The housing register team closed the application pending the outcome of the homeless case.
16. Mr B contacted the Council on 12 May 2023 and it says the case officer carried out a triage assessment but there is no record of this on the case notes.
17. There is no record of any further action on Mr B’s case until he complained on 20 July 2023.
18. The Council responded on 6 September 2023. It noted that the Council had not taken any action since 12 May 2023 and said this was unacceptable. It said the Council had been attempting to make contact with the family member to verify Mr B was being asked to leave. It could not identify any actions taken by the Council to assist Mr B. It said the Council should have issued Mr B with a PHP detailing the actions he and the Council should take. But there was no record of one on the file. It said it would ensure one was completed and sent to him immediately. It also said it would notify the housing register team of any homeless duties accepted to allow the bidding account to be activated. The Council said it would ensure this was done and backdated to the date the homeless duty was accepted. It also said it recognised Mr B could not accept supported accommodation due to his son staying with him on a regular basis. The Council apologised and said he could escalate the complaint to stage two if he remained dissatisfied.
19. Mr B complained to us at this point but we referred the complaint back to the Council to carry out a stage two investigation.
20. The case records show no further action was taken until 11 December 2023 when the Council uploaded evidence onto the case that Mr B appears to have provided in May 2023 in support of his case. The Council also noted there was a draft of a PHP and a letter accepting the prevention duty dated 7 June 2023 on file, which had never been sent out. The Council agreed to activate Mr B’s bidding account in Band C from 7 June 2023 and accept the relief duty from now.
21. The notes indicate that the Council made automatic bids on Mr B’s account from 14 December 2023 and into early 2024, none of which were successful.
22. We accepted the complaint in January 2024 as the Council had not sent a stage two complaint response.
23. No further action was taken on his homeless case until 2 February 2024 when a new case worker took over the case. They contacted Mr B on 7 February 2024 to discuss his case. They made a referral to a supported accommodation provider. Mr B was very upset by the telephone call and said the officer was rude and aggressive, blaming him for his housing situation and questioning what he had done to resolve the situation.
24. On 7 March 2024 the Council sent Mr B a decision that it was ending the relief duty and did not owe him the main housing duty because he was not in priority need. The Council said it had sent him a PHP and kept it under review and was satisfied it had taken all reasonable steps to help him. It said it did not owe him any further duty because it did not consider he was in priority need and it would send him a further letter explaining the reasons for this. The letter explained he had a right of review against the decision.
25. The second letter said that he had been living with a friend since he was evicted in September 2023. It did not consider he was vulnerable due to his mental health condition because he was able to claim benefits, make housing applications and had found somewhere to live albeit temporary. The letter explained he had a right of review against the decision.
26. In response to my enquiries the Council said it had contacted Mr B’s relative in May 2023 to confirm the homelessness and they informed the Council that Mr B had secured accommodation elsewhere. There is no record of this on the file. It said that a full housing assessment was done, and a PHP drawn up on 7 June 2023. There is no evidence on the case records that this took place.
27. The Council says it accepted a prevention duty at this point and provided a copy of a letter dated 7 June 2023 addressed to Mr B at the property he was evicted from. There is no evidence this letter was sent to Mr B and he did not receive it.
28. The Council says it accepted a relief duty on 6 September 2023 and notified Mr B. But the letter was addressed to Mr B’s old address and there is no evidence on the file that it was sent to him. He did not receive it.

Analysis

Homelessness

29. Between March 2023 and February 2024 the Council failed to deal with Mr B’s homelessness application in accordance with the law and guidance. When Mr B contacted the Council, he was threatened with homelessness within 56 days, so the Council had a duty to carry out an assessment and produce a PHP. It made brief contact in May 2023 but there is no record that any assessment was done, or any decisions reached on whether the Council owed a prevention duty to Mr B. There is no evidence it worked with Mr B to prevent his homelessness or provide any advice or assistance to him. This was fault.
30. The homelessness team took no action when it was informed Mr B was evicted and had no fixed abode. It did not consider whether it should offer him interim accommodation and failed to provide any advice or support on alternative housing options. It also failed to properly consider how his medical condition affected his housing needs. This was fault.
31. Even once the Council upheld a stage one complaint agreeing that it had taken no action between May and September 2023, it failed to rectify the fault and continued to do nothing. This was fault which meant that Mr B remained in a state of limbo staying with a friend for a long time while he waited for contact with the Council, and with the expectation that he would be rehoused.

Notifications

32. I have concluded the Council sent no decisions or information to Mr B in respect of his housing application between March 2023 and March 2024. It confirmed in the complaint response of September 2023 that it had not contacted him since May 2023 but then produced copies of letters and a PHP supposedly sent to Mr B in June and September 2023. I do not consider these letters were sent to Mr B and were possibly created after the event to disguise the lack of action on the case. Even if they had been sent, Mr B would not have received them as they were addressed to the property from which he had been evicted. This was further fault which exacerbated the injustice to Mr B.

Decisions

33. The Council took substantive action in February 2024 when a new case officer telephoned Mr B. Following this call, they decided the Council did not owe Mr B a housing duty. Mr B was upset by the call and felt he was dismissed and blamed for his circumstances. As there are no notes or recordings of the call, I do not know how long it was, whether it was pre-arranged or what was discussed, so I am unable to reach a view on the telephone call.
34. The decision letters sent in March 2024 explained that the Council did not owe him a duty because he was not in priority need. It is not clear what information the Council considered to reach this decision. It had on file a record of Mr B’s contact with his GP between February and May 2023, so I assume this is what was considered. The letter contained inaccurate information about Mr B’s eviction date: it said it was September 2023 rather than May 2023. Again this appears to be a tactic to disguise how long it had been since Mr B approached the Council as homeless. It also said it had produced a PHP, kept this under review and done everything it could to relieve Mr B’s homelessness. All of these statements are evidently untrue and added to Mr B’s distress and frustration at the way he had been treated. This is fault which caused frustration and distress to Mr B.
35. Given the lack of action for almost a year I consider the Council should have offered Mr B a face-to-face appointment to carry out a proper assessment of his housing needs and give him the opportunity to provide further information about his current circumstances, including his medical conditions and the arrangements with his son. The failure to do so was further fault.
36. I understand the Council gave him a right of review against the decisions, but Mr B said he felt unable to pursue this due to his mental state and the way the Council had treated him.

Bidding system

37. The Council suspended his bidding account in May 2023 pending the outcome of his homeless application. Despite chasing up Mr B’s homeless case officer on several occasions and promising to activate the account in September 2023 the account remained suspended until mid-December 2023. This denied Mr B the opportunity to bid on accommodation himself and contributed to his frustration and hopelessness about his housing situation.
38. The Council has said it does not consider there were any available properties which Mr B would have been able to successfully bid on, but I consider the delay in activating the account caused him additional uncertainty and distress.

Complaint-handling

39. The Council’s complaint-handling was woefully inadequate. It took seven weeks rather than four to respond to the stage one complaint and then failed to respond to the stage two complaint at all despite promising us on several occasions that it would do so. The Council also failed to take any action to rectify the identified fault at stage one despite promising to monitor the case. This was fault which caused Mr B additional distress as he had no way of challenging the Council’s lack of action.

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Agreed action

40. In recognition of the injustice caused to Mr B, I recommended the Council:
41. Within one month of the date of my final decision:
• offers Mr B a face-to-face appointment to take a fresh homelessness application from him:
• carries out a thorough reassessment of his circumstances, including considering if he is homeless or threatened with homelessness, or eligible for interim accommodation;
• invites Mr B to provide up-to-date evidence regarding his medical condition and how it affects him to enable the Council to carry out a fresh decision on whether he is vulnerable due to his mental health and in priority need;
• draws up a PHP and provides Mr B with advice and support on his housing options;
• sends him written notification of all decisions made on his case with a right of review where appropriate; and
• apologises to Mr B and pays him £1000 for the failure to deal with his case properly for a year.
42. Within three months:
• Reviews its homelessness service and makes changes to ensure:
1. all staff are aware of the Council’s legal duties and the timescales for taking specific actions;
2. proper records are kept of the actions taken, and the rationale for that action;
3. written decisions are sent to applicants at the correct address at each stage with a formal right of review;
4. there is a robust monitoring system to identify delays promptly and take action to rectify them.
43. Also within three months:
• Reviews its complaint-handling service and makes changes to ensure:
1. responses are sent within the Council’s published timescales;
2. that complaints referred from our office are dealt with promptly; and
3. any promised actions to remedy identified injustice are implemented within a reasonable period of time.
44. The Council has agreed to the recommendations and it should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Final decision

45. I consider this is a proportionate way of putting right the injustice caused to Mr B and I have completed my investigation on this basis.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman