Decision Report 202005665

Summary

C submitted a housing application to the council and complained about how this was handled. C complained that the council unreasonably suspended their application while investigating their personal circumstances, that they ignored their medical conditions, and that they did not respond to C’s concerns appropriately. The council said they considered C’s application was handled appropriately and they noted that C has since accepted an offer of permanent housing.

We found that, while C did record their medical conditions on the housing application, they did not indicate that they required any specific adaptations, therefore the council handled the application appropriately. We did not uphold this aspect of C's complaint. While we considered the council handled C’s application appropriately overall, and they gave appropriate advice in response to C’s queries, we did conclude that the council’s housing allocations policy was not clear about the circumstances that an application will be suspended. As such, we upheld the second part of C's complaint and asked the council to review their policy to ensure it is clear and transparent with regard to when housing applications will/will not be suspended.

Recommendations

What we said should change to put things right in future:

• Housing applicants should be informed promptly if/when their housing applications have been suspended, in accordance with the council’s policy.
• The council’s policy should be clear on the circumstances where a housing application will or will not be suspended.

We have asked the organisation to provide us with evidence that they have implemented the recommendations we have made on this case by the deadline we set.