Islington Council (202210743)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202210743

Islington Council

29 February 2024

Our approach

What we can and cannot consider is called the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction and is governed by the Housing Ombudsman Scheme. The Ombudsman must determine whether a complaint comes within their jurisdiction. The Ombudsman seeks to resolve disputes wherever possible but cannot investigate complaints that fall outside of this. 

In deciding whether a complaint falls within their jurisdiction, the Ombudsman will carefully consider all the evidence provided by the parties and the circumstances of the case.

The complaint

1. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s rent account.

Determination (jurisdictional decision)

2. When a complaint is brought to the Ombudsman, we must consider all the circumstances of the case as there are sometimes reasons why a complaint will not be investigated.
3. After carefully considering all the evidence, I have determined that the complaint, as set out above, is not within the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.

Summary of events

4. In October 2020 the resident was placed in temporary accommodation by the landlord, which is a local authority. Her rent was £306 per week, which was paid by housing benefit.
5. In or around June 2021 the resident’s circumstances changed. Her housing benefit was stopped but she was not informed that her rent was therefore not being paid until she received notification on 26 August 2021. During this time arrears accrued on her account.
6. She contacted the landlord, who apologised for failing to inform her of the change in her housing benefit account and offered to set up an arrangement where she could address the debt through payment by instalments. The resident considered that the debt had accrued because of the landlord’s failure to keep her informed and that it should therefore waive the debt.
7. The landlord said it would not do this but in complaint correspondence offered to pay her £275 to acknowledge the distress and inconvenience caused and delays in complaint handling. It later also offered for £100 to be written off what had been the resident’s weekly charge of £306 for the period of time it had failed to inform her of the change to her housing benefit provision.
8. The resident remained unhappy and took her complaint to this Service.

Reasons

9. Paragraph 42 (J) of the Scheme says that, “The Ombudsman may not consider complaints which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion…fall properly within the jurisdiction of another Ombudsman, regulator or complaint-handling body”.
10. Under the terms of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (“the LGSCO”) and this Ombudsman, dated September 2022, complaints about the management of interim and temporary accommodation (which would include the landlord’s handling of the resident’s rent account) are under the LGSCO’s remit to investigate. This is because the landlord granted the accommodation under its statutory obligation to prevent homelessness under Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996. The landlord’s actions are therefore taken in its capacity as a local authority, which is subject to the LGSCO’s jurisdiction.