Westminster Council ordered to apologise and compensate pensioner for housing failures

Westminster Council was ordered to pay a pensioner £650 as compensation after repeatedly offering unsuitable accommodation when dealing with a homelessness application.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman said Westminster Council’s actions caused the resident, known only as Ms E, distress and uncertainty and ordered them to backdate her registration on the housing register to August 2023 and to apologise.

The watchdog said Westminster City should have taken steps to help Ms E keep her home or find somewhere new to live when she first approached them in June 2023. This included providing advice and support to see if the landlord could agree not to evict Ms E.

It acknowledged that given the landlord had increased the rent and Ms E did not agree with the new rate it is “more likely than not” the council could not have prevented her homelessness.

The Ombudsman said it took the council two months to help Ms E after assessing her in July 2024 and advised it was her legal right to stay in her property even after the eviction notice expired. The watchdog said though this is true, the Homelessness Code of Guidance says it’s not generally reasonable to expect someone to stay beyond the expiry of an eviction notice.

The council was also aware Ms E’s notice would expire in August 2023 and did not consider if they had a responsibility to find her a new home. It also said there is no reason to believe she would not have been eligible for community supported housing at the time.

The Ombudsman said the five-month delay in helping Ms E find a home meant she “had no certainty as to what support the council would provide to her or when”. It also said the £80 offered to Ms E in recognition of its poor communication “does not reflect the significance of the injustice caused by the faults identified in this investigation”.

The Ombudsman said it cannot say whether Ms E would have received an offer for a suitable property had she been placed on the housing register in August 2023.

Ms E approached the council in June 2023 saying her landlord increased her rent to an unaffordable amount. She told the council she was handed an eviction notice which would expire on August 5.

Westminster Council told Ms E she did not need to leave the property when the notice period ended as she had a legal right to stay and provided her with some links to information from a homelessness charity about her rights.

In July, the council assessed Ms E and noted she was over 60 and struggling with her mental health. It did not contact her until September when it accepted a duty to help her find a new home and issued a personalised housing plan.

The plan said the council would help Ms E keep her current accommodation or help her find something else before she became homeless. The council offered her a property in November 2023 but Ms E declined because it was too far for her and remained in her private rented property.

Ms E’s landlord took court action to remove her from the property and obtained a possession order — a copy of which was provided to the council in December. In January 2024, the council said it would end its prevention duty and work on finding her a flat, also known as a relief duty. The authority’s joint assessment panel found Ms E was eligible for community supportive housing and ended its relief duty a month later.

Ms E disagreed and asked for a review. While waiting for an outcome, the council offered her a property. Ms E viewed it and told the council she could not accept any properties in that specific area as it was very close to her ex-partner, who was abusive to her.

The council noted this and said it would not offer another property near her ex. In April and again in July 2024, Ms E told the council she did not need community supportive housing.

She said the housing was appropriate for those with mobility needs or those who are far less independent than she is. She said the property would affect her mental health because it was more appropriate for elderly and dependent residents.

In June 2024, the review panel upheld the council’s decision. The following month, the council offered Ms E another property and she attended a viewing. Ms E said the property was, again, close to the street she had asked the council to avoid.

In July, she left her property and stayed with friends after being told bailiffs had been booked to evict her. She stayed with different friends until she found a private rental property in November 2024, where she had remained since.

The council offered her a suitable home in August 2024, which Ms E declined. She said the council caused too many delays and was unhappy with how it had dealt with her homelessness application. The council confirmed it had ended its duty to Ms E when she declined the property.

In April this year, the council wrote to Ms E saying it had registered her for a studio flat with a back dated registration of February 2024. Ms E remains unhappy with the way the council dealt with her homelessness application.

The Ombudsman ordered the council to make a recognition payment of £650 “to acknowledge the delays causing distress and uncertainty in what would have been an already difficult time for Ms E”.

Westminster City Council has been contacted for comment.

Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, decision: Westminster City Council (24 014 490).

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