The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with Ms X when it ended its homeless duty towards her. This is because the Council has agreed to take action to remedy the injustice it caused Ms X when it failed to record her request for a review and relied on an old notice to quit to end try and evict her.
The complaint
Ms X complains the Council wrongly ended its homeless duty towards her and did not accept her request for a review of its decision. Ms X says the Council then threatened her with eviction and referred her family to children’s services. Ms X says this caused her and her family significant distress.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide further investigation would not lead to a different outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code and Guidance on Remedies.
My assessment
In response to Ms X’s complaint the Council acknowledged the letter it sent to her ending its duty had not contained the proper information and so was not valid. The Council has therefore reinstated its duty to Ms X.
The Council ended its homeless duty to Ms X in October 2021 when she refused an offer of private rented accommodation. Ms X’s representatives wrote to the Council asking for a review of the Council’s decision shortly after this. The Council says it did not receive the review request. However, Ms X has provided a tracking number which shows this was delivered. Therefore, it is likely the review request was received. The Council is at fault for failing to deal with the review request properly.
The Council proceeded to evict Ms X from temporary accommodation as it had ended its duty towards her. The Council did not serve Ms X with a new notice to quit but relied on one it served in 2017 when she had rent arrears. Ms X had since cleared the arrears. The Council said the notice to quit had ended the tenancy and it could still rely on this. Whilst this is legally correct the Council was at fault for failing to reinstate Ms X’s licence/tenancy when she cleared her arrears. It was not fair for it to rely on the notice to quit when it had been served for rent arrears which had subsequently been cleared.
The fault by the Council has caused Ms X significant distress and uncertainty. We have therefore recommended the Council take action to remedy this. The Council has accepted these recommendations which are set out below.
Agreed action
The Council has agreed to take the following action to remedy the injustice it caused Ms X: Apologise to Ms X for the failure to process her review request and for relying on the old notice to quit.
Reinstate Ms X’s tenancy/license.
Pay Ms X £750 to acknowledge the distress and uncertainty she and her family were caused.
The Council should take this action within 4 weeks of our final decision.
The Council should take the following action to improve its services: Remind all staff who handle post of the importance of logging post, especially when signed for.
Review procedures around the issuing of NTQs for temporary accommodation to ensure new tenancy agreements are issued when underlying reasons for eviction have been addressed (e.g. rent arrears cleared).
The Council should report back to the Ombudsman with what action it has taken regarding the above recommendations within two months of our final decision.
Final decision
We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because the Council has agreed to take action to remedy the injustice caused as a result of the fault we have identified.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman