Summary: Ms X complains the Council has not dealt properly with her homelessness application. The Council delayed assessing her circumstances. Ms X suffered avoidable distress and was homeless for 11 weeks. The Council should apologise, pay Ms X £300 for avoidable distress and £150 for time and trouble and provide training to staff.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Ms X, complains the Council has delayed assessing her homelessness application.
2. Ms X says the has suffered avoidable distress and been left homeless.

Back to top

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)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

5. I spoke to Ms X’s representative about her complaint and considered documents she provided. I made enquiries of the Council and considered its response and the supporting documents it provided.
6. Ms X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

Back to top

What I found

Law, guidance and policies

7. If someone contacts a council seeking accommodation or help to obtain accommodation and gives ‘reason to believe’ they ‘may be’ homeless or threatened with homelessness within 56 days, the council has a duty to make inquiries into what, if any, further duty it owes them. The threshold for triggering the duty to make inquiries is low. The person does not have to complete a specific form or approach a particular department of the council. (Housing Act 1996, section 184 and Homelessness Code of Guidance paragraphs 6.2 and 18.5)
8. 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)
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)
10. Homeless applicants may request a review within 21 days of being notified of what duty (if any) is owed to them if they are found to be homeless or threatened with homelessness.

What happened?

11. This is a brief chronology of key events. It does not contain everything I reviewed during my investigation.
12. The Council accepted a referral from another Council about Ms X’s homelessness in April 2023. Ms X told the Council she was travelling overseas in June 2023 and her application was closed.
13. Ms X approached the Council again at the end of October 2023 about her homelessness. The Council assessed her circumstances and made a decision to offer her temporary accommodation at the end of January 2024.

Analysis

14. I have reviewed the correspondence between Ms X and the Council, including information provided by Ms X on 13 December 2023, 2 January 2024 and more recently at the end of January 2024.
15. I have seen emails and information provided by the Council which shows Ms X provided proof of an air ticket when she said she was travelling abroad in 2023. The Council was not at fault when it closed her application following this
16. The Council says MS X’s case officer left the Council at Christmas 2023 and her case was allocated to a new officer.
17. There is no evidence the old case officer made any enquiries regarding Ms X’s homelessness application.
18. The Council says there were discrepancies concerning the information Ms X provided to it about benefits, involvement of social workers, and her children’s circumstances, arising from 27 December 2023.
19. Ms X had to chase her homelessness application through her MP before Christmas 2023, because she had had no contact from the Council about it.
20. Ms X’s MP gave her a response from the Council at the end of December, which indicated it needed information about benefits.
21. Ms X replied with information on 2 January 2024 providing information. She chased the Council on 10 January and 14 January for a response to this.
22. There was no response from the Council, until 24 January, after the Ombudsman started to investigate and had asked the Council for an urgent update on Ms X’s situation. The Council apologised to Ms X for its late response and asked her again for information about benefits, which Ms X had already provided on 2 January. Ms X sent this information to the Council a second time.
23. There is no evidence the Council made any enquiries about her family circumstances, or the discrepancies it said it had identified in her information, or took any action in respect of Ms X’s homelessness until 24 January 2024.
24. The Council then accepted a Section 189B(2) duty to help Ms X to secure that suitable accommodation was available to her and offered her temporary accommodation for herself, but not her children as well. This decision carries a right of review. I therefore cannot investigate the Council’s decision to provide temporary accommodation for her alone and not her children. Ms X should use the right of review available to her if she wishes to challenge this.
25. The Council delayed completing an assessment of Ms X’s homelessness application. This is fault by the Council. Ms X suffered avoidable distress and remained homeless for approximately 11 weeks.

Back to top

Agreed action

26. To remedy the outstanding injustice caused by the fault I have identified, the Council has agreed to take the following action within 4 weeks of this decision:
• Apologise to Ms X for the delay in assessing her homelessness application;
• Pay Ms X £300 in respect of avoidable distress;
• Pay Ms X £150 in respect of her time and trouble; and
• Provide training to staff who manage homelessness applications to ensure there are no unnecessary delays in completing assessments.
27. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

Back to top

Final decision

28. I have found fault by the Council, which caused injustice to Ms X. I have now completed my investigation.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman