Summary: Miss X complained the Council took too long to complete a non-statutory review of her temporary homeless accommodation. We found fault because there was a significant delay in completing the review. Miss X has suffered avoidable distress, frustration and uncertainty. To remedy the injustice caused by this fault, the Council has agreed to apologise, make a payment to Miss X and share guidance with relevant officers.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains the Council has still not contacted her to complete a suitability review of her accommodation after she requested this in the summer of 2023. She complains the accommodation remains unsuitable for her and her infant child.
2. Miss X says this has caused her mental health difficulties, distress and frustration and that her child’s development is suffering due to the unsuitable accommodation they are living in.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. Service failure can happen when an organisation fails to provide a service as it should have done because of circumstances outside its control. We do not need to show any blame, intent, flawed policy or process, or bad faith by an organisation to say service failure (fault) has occurred. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(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 all the information Miss X provided and discussed this complaint with her. I have also asked the Council questions and requested information, and in turn have considered the Council’s response.
6. Miss X and the Council had the opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I have taken any comments received into consideration before reaching my final decision.

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What I found

Homelessness legislation and statutory guidance

7. Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996 and the Homelessness Code of Guidance for Local Authorities set out councils’ powers and duties to people who are homeless or threatened with homelessness.

Interim and temporary accommodation

8. There are two types of accommodation councils provide to certain homeless applicants: interim accommodation and temporary accommodation.
9. A council must secure accommodation for applicants and their household if it has reason to believe they may be homeless, eligible for assistance and have a priority need. This is called interim accommodation. (Housing Act 1996, section 188)
10. If, having made inquiries, the council is not satisfied an applicant is homeless, eligible, and in priority need, it will have no further accommodation duty.
11. If a council is satisfied an applicant is unintentionally homeless, eligible for assistance, and has a priority need, the council has a duty to secure that accommodation is available for their occupation. This is called the main housing duty. The accommodation a council provides until it can end this duty is called temporary accommodation. (Housing Act 1996, section 193)

Suitable temporary accommodation

12. Homelessness temporary accommodation must be legally suitable. (Housing Act 1996, section 206) Anyone who believes their temporary accommodation is unsuitable can ask the Council to review the accommodation’s suitability. (Housing Act 1996, section 202)
13. If the Council’s review decides the accommodation is unsuitable, the Council must provide suitable accommodation. If the review decides the accommodation is suitable, the applicant has the right to appeal to the county court on a point of law. (Housing Act 1996, section 204)
14. The duty to provide suitable accommodation is an ongoing duty. Councils must keep the issue of suitability of accommodation under review. (Homelessness Code of Guidance paragraph 17.8)
15. A suitability review should be completed within eight weeks of being requested.

Space standards for accommodation

16. The minimum amount of floor space for an adult and child between the age of 1 and 10 is 8.36 square metres. This does not take into account bathroom or kitchen areas. (Housing Act 1985, part X, section 326)

The Council’s non-statutory suitability review process

17. The Council first completes a non-statutory review of accommodation rather than a review under section 202 as referenced above.
18. The Council’s target to complete non-statutory suitability reviews is also eight weeks.
19. When this non-statutory review is finalised, it gives the right for a tenant to request a formal suitability review under section 202 of the Housing Act 1996, as outlined above.

What happened

Background information

20. Miss X lives in temporary homeless accommodation in the Council’s area, which she moved into late in 2022. When she moved into the accommodation, she was pregnant. In mid-November 2022, Miss X complained to the Council that the accommodation would be too cramped when her baby was born and was unsuitable.
21. In January of 2023, Miss X registered a formal complaint with the Council and the Council responded by the end of the month.
22. In mid-March 2023, Miss X then chased the Council because she had still not been contacted to arrange the suitability review after her request in November 2022.
23. In mid-April 2023, the Council completed its suitability review. Miss X’s baby had by now been born. The Council decided that the property was suitable at the current time and suggested things which could be done to make the property safer for her child.
24. In its stage two complaint response at the end of April 2023, the Council apologised for the delay in completing the original review. It advised Miss X that she could revisit the suitability issue when her child was more mobile and gave her the direct contact details of the review team. This period of time and original suitability decision is not part of this investigation.

Miss X’s second suitability review request

25. I have set out below a summary of the key events. This is not meant to show everything that happened.
26. In mid-September 2023, Miss X emailed the suitability review team directly to request a new review (the review). She attached the previous complaint response as the Council had suggested. She said her child was now much more mobile, the property was still not suitable and there were various maintenance issues which needed attention, including an infestation of mice in the building.
27. The Council replied the same day to advise it had received Miss X’s request for a non-statutory review of the suitability of her accommodation.
28. Miss X chased the Council at the end of September 2023 to ask for an update on the review. She then chased the Council again in mid-November 2023 as nothing had happened.
29. Later in November 2023, Miss X again contacted the Council to express her disappointment at the lack of action and complained of other maintenance issues with the property. The Council contacted the managing agents to report the issues regarding a lack of water and electricity at the property but made no comment on the review.
30. Miss X had by now contacted the Ombudsman to register her complaint about the lack of progress with the review. At the end of November 2023, the Ombudsman asked the Council to check for any outstanding review and progress it.
31. Miss X chased the Council again for an update in January 2024 as the review had still not been completed. The Council acknowledged the email the next day.
32. At the beginning of March 2024 and after being contacted again by the Ombudsman, the Council contacted its suitability review team to check whether the property had yet been inspected. The Council went out to assess the property two days later. It wrote a detailed report on the visit and the condition and space within the property.
33. At the end of April 2024, Miss X asked the Ombudsman if there was an update on the review as she had not heard from the Council.
34. Early in May 2024, the Council said it hoped to complete the review in the next 10 working days. It said it was liaising with the managing agents of the property to confirm whether remedial works needed at the property (advised to the Council in an email from the agents sent in mid-March 2024) had been done.
35. At the end of May 2024, Miss X advised the Ombudsman the Council had still not contacted her with a decision on the review.
36. In mid-June 2024, the Council advised that it had still not completed the review. It said it had completed the preparatory work and the inspection (from early-March 2024).
37. A week later, the Council sent Miss X and the Ombudsman its decision on the review. The decision said:
• the floorspace of the accommodation (not including the shower and toilet room) was 9.5 square metres;
• the small kitchenette area must be deducted from this to arrive at the actual liveable floor space area which is available to be used;
• the original inspection officer had estimated the kitchenette area to be less than 1 square metre, leaving 8.5 square metres of available floor space;
• this meant that available floor space was slightly above (20 square centimetres) the legal minimum requirement of 8.36 square metres for Miss X and her child's needs;
• the reviewing officer had taken into account the final floor space measurement was an approximate measurement; and
• the officer had also taken into account the very limited cooking area and sink space.
38. The Council said that the liveable floorspace area was borderline suitable. It decided Miss X would benefit from larger accommodation and that it was suitable in the short to medium term, but not the long term.
39. The reviewing officer recommended that Miss X be placed on the transfer list for larger, more suitable alternative temporary accommodation.

Analysis

Miss X’s review

40. Miss X first contacted the Council to request a second suitability review of her temporary homeless accommodation in mid-September 2023. Despite acknowledging the request for a non-statutory review and numerous chases from Miss X since then, Miss X was still waiting for a decision after more than 39 weeks.
41. In response to my enquiries, I asked the Council what action it had taken to progress the review when contacted by the Ombudsman in November 2024. The Council confirmed it had no record of any action being taken.
42. The Council took action to inspect the property at the beginning of March 2024 and when its deadline to respond to my enquiries was due two days later.
43. After this time and despite indicating that it would hope to complete the review in mid-May 2024, there was still no progress.
44. The review is non-statutory. This means there is no legal timescale within which the Council should complete the review. The Council, however, aims to complete it within eight weeks which mirrors the timescale for the statutory section 202 review. If Miss X is unhappy with the result of the non-statutory review, she would then have the opportunity to request a statutory one. If the statutory review was to decide the property was suitable, then Miss X's final option would be to appeal this decision to the county court on a point of law.
45. After waiting for 39 weeks, the Council had still not completed the non-statutory review. This severely delayed Miss X’s opportunity to know the Council’s decision and consider taking the next steps available to her. Her opportunity to consider any eventual right of appeal was therefore also severely delayed.
46. I am pleased to note the Council has now completed the review. By its own timescales, the review should have been completed by early-November 2023. Instead, the review took 40 weeks to complete. Although I acknowledge the Council’s comments (see paragraphs 47-50) about its difficulties in recruiting and retaining an experienced reviews officer, the delay in completing the review for Miss X is sufficient for me to make a finding of service failure. This caused her avoidable distress, uncertainty and frustration. It meant that she was unable to properly consider the next steps as they were not yet available to her because of the Council’s ongoing and lengthy delay. I have made a recommendation below to remedy this injustice.

The Council’s homelessness service

47. In March 2023, the Ombudsman issued a public interest report on an unrelated complaint about the Council's homelessness service and the suitability of its temporary accommodation.
48. The Council agreed to commission an independent, external review of its homelessness service. As part of this, it was to then produce an action plan around how it could meet its statutory duties to homeless applicants.
49. In its response to my enquiries, the Council said that although it had recruited a reviews officer in March 2023, the officer left the Council’s employment a few months later. The Council confirmed it has since tried to recruit an experienced reviews officer without success. The Council also confirmed it has recruited internally to fill the vacancy on a temporary basis and the officer was being trained for the role.
50. With this in mind, I do not intend to make any further recommendation about the Council’s processes or staffing for the relevant department. However, the Ombudsman expects the Council to continue to take steps to recruit a member of permanent staff to the role. The Ombudsman also expects the Council to continue to monitor and seek to reduce its current backlog of incomplete non-statutory review requests, in order to minimise delays for those affected.

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Agreed action

51. To remedy the injustice caused by the fault I have identified, the Council has agreed to take the following action within four weeks of the date of my final decision:
• apologise to Miss X for the delay in completing the review, for the uncertainty whilst she waited for its decision and the delay in knowing what her next available steps were;
• pay Miss X £350 to recognise the avoidable distress and uncertainty caused by the identified fault; and
• share the Ombudsman’s focus report - unsuitable temporary accommodation: guide for practitioners (issued May 2023) with relevant staff, managers and directors.
52. The apology written should be in line with the Ombudsman’s guidance on remedies on making an effective apology.
53. Payments made are in line with the Ombudsman’s guidance on remedies.
54. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Final decision

55. I have now completed my investigation. I uphold this complaint with a finding of fault causing an injustice.

Investigator’s final decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman