London Borough of Hillingdon

The Ombudsman's final decision

Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint that the Council did not progress her homelessness application promptly and that its communication with her was poor. This is because we could not add to the Council’s investigation.

The complaint

Miss X complained about the Council’s handling of her homelessness application. In particular she complained that the Council did not progress her homelessness application promptly when her landlord served an eviction notice on her property, and it failed to respond to her communication in a timely manner.

Miss X said as a result she was caused frustration and her mental health worsened.

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

We investigate 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 continue an investigation if we decide we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

How I considered this complaint

I considered information provided by Miss X and the Council.

I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

My assessment

Miss X contacted the Council for homelessness assistance when she received an eviction notice from her landlord in April 2025. Miss X asked the Council to find her a suitable property in the borough.

In its stage one complaint response of April 2025, the Council said it would be difficult to find suitable accommodation in the borough. It said its homelessness prevention team would support Miss X to look for private rented accommodation. The Council also said if it was unable to secure suitable accommodation before the completion of the eviction process (which will take few months), it would place Miss X in a temporary accommodation but could not say where.

The Council issued a stage two complaint response in August 2025 and stated that there was no possession order or eviction date for Miss X’s property. It accepted there had been some delay in providing housing support and apologised to her for not completing referrals and an affordability assessment sooner. It told Miss X it would address these matters urgently to progress her application.

The Council acknowledged that it had not acted promptly to progress Miss X’s case; it apologised to Miss X for this. It told Miss X of the actions it would take to progress her case and support her to either sustain her current tenancy or explore suitable alternative housing. The apology provided is a suitable remedy for any injustice caused. We could not add to the Council’s investigation; therefore we will not investigate this complaint.

Final decision

We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because we could not add to the Council’s previous investigation.

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman