Summary: Miss E complains the Council placed her in temporary accommodation where there were multiple and recurrent maintenance and vermin issues. But the Council did not take her reports about these seriously and the problems continued for over a year. Miss E seeks a move to suitable permanent accommodation. Our decision is there were delays in the first period of Miss E’s complaint. The Council has agreed to our recommendation of a symbolic remedy as recognition of the injustice from this.

The complaint

1. Miss E complains the Council placed her in temporary accommodation where there were multiple and recurrent maintenance and vermin issues. But the Council did not take her reports seriously. The landlord was unresponsive to emails and delayed doing scheduled work. She asked the Council to inspect the property but the issues continued for over a year. Miss E seeks a move to suitable permanent 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 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)
3. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
4. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
5. 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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What I have and have not investigated

6. Miss E complained to the Council in March 2023, saying she had concerns back to December 2022. She complained to the Ombudsman in April 2024. So that means parts of her complaint is late, as she made the early reports over a year before her complaint to the Ombudsman (see paragraph 3). But in the period to July 2023 the issues were ongoing. Part of that period is within 12 months of the complaint to us. Given that history, I have used the discretion available to the Ombudsman to investigate the whole of the first period of problems with the repairs.
7. Anyone who believes their temporary accommodation is unsuitable can ask the Council to review the accommodation’s suitability. (Housing Act 1996, section 202) 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)
8. So Miss E had an alternative remedy to challenge the suitability of her temporary accommodation (see paragraph 4). However, at first, she was not suggesting the accommodation was inherently unsuitable, she just wanted repairs done. A court could not have made an order about repairs – it could only rule on suitability. Therefore it was not reasonable to expect Miss E to have asked for a review and then taken court action. So we have used our discretion to investigate this issue as far as is necessary for us to consider the Council’s actions in response to Miss E’s reports of disrepair.

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How I considered this complaint

9. The information I have seen includes Miss E’s complaint, the Council’s responses under stage one and two of its complaints procedure and its response to my enquiries. I sent Miss E and the Council my draft decision and invited their comments.

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What I found

Legal and administrative background

10. 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.
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 ensure 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) This temporary accommodation must be legally suitable. (Housing Act 1996, section 206)

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What happened

12. The information below is a summary of relevant events, and does not include every everything that happened during this period.
13. In late December 2022 Miss E told the Council about disrepair and mice in her temporary accommodation, where she was living with her two young children. The Council’s officer contacted the landlord who advised they were aware of the issues and seeking to rectify them.
14. Over the first part of 2023 Miss E was in touch with the landlord about the repairs. In mid-February she contacted the Council again. The landlord’s agents advised the Council of action they had taken. Miss E disputed the extent of the work undertaken.
15. The problems continued into March. Miss E complained. She noted the landlord was addressing one issue, but listed ongoing problems including a faulty boiler, continuing pest control concerns, holes that needed filling, nails sticking out the carpet and fixing a bath panel. She complained the Council had advised her these things were supposed to have been fixed by early January. She asked for an update on when the repairs would be completed. She noted she had sent emails and left voicemails but the Council had not responded.
16. The Council delayed responding to Miss E’s complaint until the end of May. It apologised. It also apologised for the difficulties she had experienced in contacting its Temporary Accommodation Team. It noted the landlord’s handyman had visited in April, as had pest control contractors.
17. Miss E asked to escalate her complaint. She noted pest control had visited, but the handyman had caused further issues with the property.
18. The Council’s July 2023 stage two complaint response noted that some issues had been fixed but others were unresolved. It said its view was the property was in a habitable condition and the landlord was taking action to resolve issues. The Council involved its property inspector. It upheld Miss E’s complaint.
19. In February 2024 Miss E’s landlord gave her a notice to quit the property. She spoke to the Council’s officer and advised them of delayed maintenance and repair issues. The Council’s property inspector contacted the landlord. The landlord advised they had changed the agents managing the property.
20. Around a week later Miss E contacted the Council advising nobody had visited to fix her cooker. She asked to escalate her complaint. Around two weeks later the agents advised they had an appointment booked with Miss E when it would inspect the property and resolve any issues as soon as possible. It noted an issue with pest control.
21. After Miss E’s complained to the Ombudsman its Temporary Accommodation Team contacted the landlord noting the issues Miss E was experiencing at the property had been referred to it several times. The landlord advised it had withdrawn the eviction notice. It said it had a problem as Miss E was out at work during the day, so there was no way its maintenance workers could access the property during their working hours.
22. In response to my enquiries the Council advised it had put Miss E on a list for a priority transfer to alternative temporary accommodation, as the landlord could not carry out remedial works while the property was occupied.

Analysis

23. In the first half of 2023, the Council allowed the resolution of the repair and maintenance issues at Miss E’s temporary accommodation to drift. For example, it could have earlier visited to form its own view about what repairs were needed. It was not until Miss E escalated her complaint to the second stage of the Council’s complaints procedure that it did this. Allowing the Council and the landlord some time to complete the repairs, my decision is there was a delay of around six months, which was fault.
24. This will have led to an injustice to Miss E that demands a remedy as her family lived in the property with the unremedied issues for longer than needed.
25. After July 2023, the Council has no records of contacts from Miss E until February 2024, when issues arose again. Given the gap between those periods, I cannot link them. On the second occasion, my provisional view is there was no fault in how the Council responded.
26. The Council has accepted some poor communications from its team. And that it delayed responding to Miss E’s complaint.
27. Miss E wanted the Council to move her to permanent accommodation. My decision is that is something the Ombudsman cannot achieve. The Council has advised it was seeking to move Miss E from the accommodation, but to alternative temporary accommodation. That was an appropriate response to the issues identified.

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Agreed action

28. The Council has agreed that, within a month of my final decision, it will:
• write to Miss E apologising for the faults I have identified. We publish guidance on remedies which sets out our expectations for how organisations should apologise effectively to remedy injustice. The organisation should consider this guidance in making the apology I have recommended in my findings.
• make Miss E a symbolic payment of £350 for the distress the delay in resolving the problems in her temporary accommodation will have led to and the linked delays and poor communications.
29. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Draft decision

30. I uphold this complaint. The Council has agreed to my recommendations, so I have completed my investigation.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman