You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
Council told to pay compensation to homeless father after ombudsman probe
A council has been told to apologise and pay £4,500 for the distress caused to a father after an official probe concluded he was denied his rights as a homeless person.
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman recommended that Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council compensate the man for the distress caused for “failing to deal with his homelessness and housing applications correctly”.
The case, dating back to 2012, emerged when the father applied as homeless after returning from living abroad to look after his children, who had been removed from the care of his ex-partner.
The council decided it owed him the full homelessness duty, the ombudsman said.
But instead of explaining this, the council arranged a six-month private let with an initial rent of £850 a month, the ombudsman’s report said.
It was subsequently raised in increments to £1,025 a month.
The council offered the family one room in a hostel after possession notices for rent arrears on the first property. The father declined the offer.
The council has paid more than £10,000 to the landlord to cover the family’s housing benefit shortfall, but the family still lives in the “unaffordable flat”, the ombudsman said.
READ MORE
Michael King, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, said: “The council failed to discuss the ramifications of accepting the property to the family when it arranged the private let.
“The council should have either explained that by accepting the flat the council would no longer have a duty towards them, or it should have offered the flat as temporary accommodation, with all the review rights that entails.
“Instead, the council effectively acted as a gatekeeper, did not give the family a homelessness decision and denied them their review rights.”
The ombudsman said that the £4,500 compensation should also be for the “time, trouble and distress the council caused him”.
The body also recommended that the council “tell people in its allocations scheme and in its housing register review decision letters about their right to complain to the ombudsman”.
In a response to Inside Housing, Rebecca Emmett, executive director of borough services at Basingstoke and Deane, said the authority “will consider the report and tell the ombudsman what it proposes to do”.
She added: “We cannot comment on individual cases.”
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman does not have legal powers to force councils to act on their recommendations. If a council refuses to carry out the recommendations, the ombudsman will issue another report.
If the council still does not take “satisfactory action”, it must publish a statement in a local newspaper explaining why it has refused to follow the recommendations.
