The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: There was fault by the Council in failing to take action after 13 October 2020 in respect of a homelessness application; fault in accepting and letting a property on its Direct Let scheme that was not cleaned to a good enough standard and without ensuring repairs were completed. The Council has already taken action to resolve the cleaning issue and has agreed an appropriate remedy in respect of the other issues.
The complaint
Ms Z, on behalf of Mrs X, complained the Council delayed in providing alternative accommodation, failed to ensure a direct lets property was clean and in a good state of repair and delayed in taking formal action regarding disrepair.
Mrs X says she has experienced stress due to living in unsuitable accommodation.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We cannot question whether an organisation’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended) 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)
How I considered this complaint
As part of the investigation, I have: considered the complaint and the documents provided by the complainant’s representative; made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided; discussed the issues with the complainant’s representative; sent my draft decision to both the Council and the complainant and taken account of their comments in reaching my final decision.
What I found
Mrs X is a single parent with seven children. In July 2020, Mrs X contacted the Council directly about repair issues at her privately rented property. A week later, an advocate contacted the Council on behalf Mrs X. She explained the family was living in a three bedroom flat and she was concerned about their physical and mental wellbeing. She said the state of the flat posed a risk to the children and Mrs X had battled with the landlord to carry out repairs without success. She requested an urgent move to suitable accommodation. A social worker and health visitor also contacted the Council explaining the problems and seeking a move for Mrs X and her children.
A senior housing needs officer responded to the housing issues on 6 August 2020. He said that as the claim to homelessness is around the condition of the property that it would need to be assessed by the Private Sector Housing (PSH) Team. He said if the property is not reasonable to continue to occupy, then they would open a case and look at potential moves.
Mrs X sent photographic evidence of the problems to the PSH team along with contact details for her landlord. The PSH team spoke to the landlord and emailed Mrs X on 12 August to say the landlord would be visiting to develop a timeframe to address the disrepair issues. The Council explained to Mrs X that the issues were not considered an emergency and that it would make arrangements to complete an inspection when working arrangements are back to normal following COVID-19 restrictions.
In September the Council emailed Mrs X’s advocate saying the landlord had indicated he had completed the remedial works. It also asked for details of room sizes, layout of property and ages of children in order to consider the concerns about overcrowding. It also corresponded with the landlord regarding the height of the windows and requested he provide window restrictors. The landlord said he had been advised the windows are too large to provide guards and so asked if the Council could rehouse the family.
PSH officers visited Mrs X’s property on 23 September. They determined the property was not statutorily overcrowded but was overcrowded which was likely to be a category one hazard under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System. They also noted issues with windows, mould growth, toilet not working, leaking kitchen sink water, unstable electric fire and hot pipework not covered.
Following the inspection visit, Mrs X made a homelessness application. The Council allocated the case to a homelessness prevention officer (HPO) on 8 October who spoke with Mrs X the following day. Mrs X continued to liaise with the PSH team about lack of action by the landlord. On 27 October the PSH team contacted Mrs X about a possible visit on 4 November. It explained that it had a legal duty to notify the landlord so that formal action could be taken if the remedial works were not carried out.
The Council continued to correspond with the landlord and works at the property began in December 2020. The landlord also arranged to replace the kitchen in January 2021. It said it was working with Mrs X to find alternative accommodation as it was agreed the property was not suitable for such a large family. Mrs X moved into a new property, found via the Council’s direct lets scheme, in January 2021.
In February 2021, Ms Z contacted the Council on behalf of Mrs X. She explained Mrs X was experiencing problems at the new property and asked who could help. The PSH team established that although the property was found via the direct lets scheme, the tenancy agreement was between Mrs X and the landlord. On 24 February 2021, it asked Ms Z to provide details so it could open a case. It explained it was not visiting properties due to the COVID-19 lockdown but that it would contact the landlord regarding any repairs.
Mrs X provided details of the repair issues which included a leak in the dining room, damp walls in bedrooms, toilet window not shutting properly, cat flap in back door, unstable door handle and some windows had no safety precautions. The Council explained it would make contact with the landlord and make an informal approach regarding repairs. It also advised Mrs X that it is important to get the right balance between heating and ventilation to prevent mould growth.
The Council wrote to the landlord on 1 March and copied it to Mrs X. He replied saying he was concerned there was not yet a signed tenancy agreement and he had already received many repair requests. He felt that having eight people in the house was causing an unusually high demand on the property. The Council was satisfied the landlord was arranging for repairs to be carried out.
Correspondence involving Ms Z, Mrs X, the Council and the landlord continued. Mrs X made a formal complaint in June 2021. Mrs X complained about issues with housing benefit, being removed from the housing allocations list, the property found via direct lets was unclean and had disrepair issues, that support from direct lets would soon end and that the private property sector has been too stressful.
The Council responded on 12 July 2021 saying that it would look into housing benefit issues if Mrs X provided specific information; it confirmed her priority banding and priority date regarding her housing application; it accepted the direct lets property was not cleaned to a good enough standard when she moved in; that it would continue to work with the landlord to resolve the disrepair issues; that direct lets would continue to support her and offer advice and it acknowledge the stress experienced and hoped that she would remain in her current property will bidding for social housing.
Mrs X’s advocate escalated the complaint to stage two of the complaints process. In response on 11 November 2021 the Council apologised for the time taken to inspect the previous property. It explained that the service did not have adequate resources due to extra demand during the COVID-19 crisis but tried to respond as quickly as possible. It also apologised if Mrs X felt the HPO had provided inaccurate information. The Council again explained Mrs X’s current priority regarding bidding for social housing. It provided a breakdown of Mrs X’s housing benefit entitlement and apologised for one instance when it had failed to return a call as requested.
The Council also apologised that the property did not meet her expectations when she moved in. It said it had organised another clean as soon as it was aware of the issue. It explained it is the landlord’s responsibility to deal with disrepair. It noted most of the repairs were complete and that the landlord had engaged an agent to manage the outstanding issues. The Council said its officer had visited the property in September and October to carry out an assessment. She found the disrepair issues were low category two hazards under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System. They said the outstanding repairs were not presenting serious hazards to Mrs X and her children and so were not a priority. The Council was satisfied all outstanding repairs were in hand and that it would continue to chase the agent for updates.
The Council explained direct lets offered support around tenancy issues but this was a private sector housing agreement between Mrs X and the landlord and it was not formally involved in the contract. The Council recommended a payment of £250 for the delay in responding to Mrs X’s complaint causing a prolonged complaint journey.
The outstanding repair issues were not all resolved and in February 2022 the Council issued an Improvement Notice under The Housing Act 2004. The notice included a Category One hazard relating to excess cold due to a gap around the back door. It also noted several Category Two hazards including damp and mould, crowding and space, entry by intruders, falling on stairs, fire and structural collapse. The notice set out the works required to remedy these hazards and required the works to be completed by 13 June 2022.
The Council visited the property on 5 May 2022 and found all but two repairs had been completed. She advised the landlord to complete them by 13 June.
Analysis Delay in providing alternative accommodation From July 2020 onwards Mrs X, her advocate, a social worker and health visitor all contacted the Council about the state of her current property and seeking an alternative. Mrs X was on the housing list and was able to bid for properties at this time but her level of priority was not high enough for her to be successful.
The Council explained that Mrs X should raise the issues with the PSH team and that it would be able to consider her situation if serious disrepair was found. I am satisfied that officers responded quickly to the disrepair reports and while it did not visit the property initially due to COVID-19 restrictions, it sought photographic evidence of the problems from Mrs X and contacted the landlord. An inspection took place in September 2020 and while this may not have been as quickly as Mrs X would have liked, I am not persuaded the time taken was so significant as to amount to fault.
Mrs X made a homelessness application on 28 September and there was a week’s delay while it was located and allocated to a homeless prevention officer. I asked the Council to provide a chronology of actions from the date of the application until Mrs X moved into the alternative accommodation in January 2021. The chronology provides no action after 13 October 2020.
A homelessness application was made and so the Council should then have considered if Mrs X was homeless or threatened with homelessness. There is no evidence the Council did this. The Council should have considered whether it was reasonable for Mrs X to continue to occupy the property even though hazards had been identified. There is no evidence to show the Council did this. While a council can suggest alternative solutions in cases of potential homelessness where these would be suitable and acceptable to the person making the application, there is no evidence of this in this case.
On the basis of the evidence provided, I am not persuaded the Council took any action after 13 October in response to Mrs X’s homelessness application or that it kept in contact with Mrs X to explain what was happening. This was fault and caused Mrs X frustration and uncertainty.
Failed to ensure a direct lets property was clean and in a good state of repair The property Mrs X moved to was found via the Council’s direct let scheme. The Council says that it inspects all properties prior to acceptance and that repairs are the responsibility of the landlord though it acts as an agent and will assist tenants with repair issues.
The Council says that although the property was cleaned prior to Mrs X moving in this was not to a good enough standard. Once Mrs X contacted it about this, the Council arranged for further cleaning to take place. I am satisfied this was an appropriate response.
Mrs X did visit the property prior to accepting the tenancy but says she was under stress and accepted the property even though it was not ideal. The Council says a trained negotiator aware of tenancy and health and safety statutory obligations inspects all properties and repairs are made prior to the tenant moving in. In this case Mrs X reported repair issues immediately that she moved in and in the stage one complaint response the Council accepts that it could have resolved the repair issues prior to Mrs X moving to the property.
The information provided shows the property was let without known repair issues being addressed. This is fault. As a result Mrs X had to live in a property with problems and was put to avoidable time and trouble in pursuing repairs.
Delayed in taking formal action regarding disrepair.
Mrs X moved into the property in January 2021 and the Council served an improvement notice in February 2022. The information provided indicates that issues reported when Mrs X first moved in were still not resolved by June 2021. The Council approached the repairs informally at first which I do not consider to be fault. There is evidence the landlord was undertaking works and trying to resolve the problems. I am satisfied the Council was entitled to use its professional judgement and take the view it was appropriate to deal with these issues informally.
Mrs X complains the Council delayed in taking formal action about the disrepair. A decision on whether to take formal action is a matter of professional judgement for the Council. While matters may have taken longer than Mrs X would have liked, I am satisfied the Council was working to resolve the issues and that its informal approach did result in many repairs being carried out. There is no evidence of long periods of inaction by the Council and so I find no fault in the fact the Council waited until February 2022 to serve the improvement notice.
Agreed action
To remedy the fault identified in this case the Council will, within one month of my final decision, take the following action: Apologise to Mrs X for the faults identified in this case; Pay Mrs X £250 to recognise the frustration and inconvenience experienced and her time and trouble in pursuing these matters. This is in addition to the £250 already paid by the Council for the delay in responding to her complaint
Final decision
I have completed my investigation with a finding of fault for the reasons explained in this statement. The Council has agreed to implement the actions I have recommended. These appropriately remedy any injustice caused by fault.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman