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Kingston upon Thames Council (202112834)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202112834

Kingston upon Thames Council

1 February 2022


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 concerns several issues relating to the provision and management of temporary accommodation provided by the local authority. Specifically, that
    1. The property was in a poor condition when allocated to the resident and required significant repairs, which the resident states rendered it uninhabitable.
    2. That the resident’s housing requests have been handled poorly.
    3. That the condition of the property and handling of the resident’s housing requests has had an adverse affect on their health and the health of their family.

Determination (jurisdictional decision)

  1. 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.

Summary of events

  1. The resident brought complaints to the local authority about their housing, as set out above in paragraph 1. The local authority provided its final response to the resident on 21 July 2021, which referred the resident to this Service.
  2. The resident referred their complaint to this Service and it was accepted for further assessment in September 2021. It was necessary for this Service to seek further clarification from the local authority about the type of accommodation offered to the resident.
  3. The local authority has now confirmed that the resident is in temporary accommodation which was provided following an application made to it for housing.

Reasons

  1. Paragraph 39  (m) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme sets out that “The Ombudsman will not investigate complaints which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion fall properly within the jurisdiction of another Ombudsman, regulator or complaint-handling body”.
  2. In this case, the complaint concerns the provision and management of temporary accommodation, and the handling of the resident’s application for housing. These are all services provided by the council in its capacity as a local authority.
  3. Complaints about the actions of a local authority fall within the jurisdiction of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. Therefore, this case is not within the Housing Ombudsman’s jurisdiction to consider.
  4. The resident may wish to refer their complaint to the LGSCO:

www.lgo.org.uk

0300 061 0614