Temporary moves support guide

Contact your landlord to report an issue about your temporary accommodation or the way it handled the move.

You should:

• ask your landlord about its decants/temporary move policy
• explain what the issues are and the impact it is having on you
• let your landlord know if you need support
• keep a record of your concerns

Your landlord should have a published policy that explains how they will respond. It should take appropriate action to address your concerns. This could include:

• explaining when and why a temporary move is needed, how long it will last, and providing as much notice as possible
• assigning one person as your main point of contact for reporting any issues with the temporary accommodation
• giving you regular updates about the progress of work in your home
• clearly explaining who is responsible for belongings left in the property while it is empty
• explaining if their insurance will cover any damage to these belongings
• arranging access to the empty property for contractors and tradespeople
• telling you about costs you need to pay, including rent and utility payments (gas, electricity, internet, and phone bills) for both properties
• arranging a thorough inspection and health and safety check before you move back in to ensure the property is safe to live in

Temporary moves landlord expectations

Telling your landlord about an issue with your temporary move is a service request. This is different from making a complaint about your landlord.

People often call both ‘a complaint’ but they are different.

You can complain if you’re unhappy with how your landlord has handled your service request.

A complaint might be about:

• the level of action taken by the landlord
• the time it took the landlord to tell you about a temporary move
• any action it should not have done, or you are unhappy with
• the way it handled the temporary move process
• the information and level of communication with you about the move
• its response to your reports of issues around the time in or suitability of the temporary accommodation

To do this, you must use the landlord's formal complaint procedure.

You can bring a complaint to us for investigation if your landlord does not resolve your issues through their complaint procedure.

Tell us:

• what went wrong
• what your landlord should do to put things right

We need your landlord's stage 2 response before we can help. This is their final answer to your complaint.

You can refer your complaint to us within 12 months of your landlord's stage 2 response. We’re unlikely to investigate complaints referred after this deadline unless there are good reasons for the delay.

Your landlord temporarily moving you to another property is different from a council providing temporary accommodation for homelessness.

If the council provides you with temporary accommodation because you are experiencing homelessness, you must tell the council about any problems. The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman handle complaints about activities under a local authorities’ statutory duty to assist individuals who are homeless, or at risk of homelessness, including temporary accommodation.

We can help you get a response from your landlord if they do not follow their complaint procedure or our Complaint Handling Code.

Send us a copy of the complaint to your landlord. This helps us understand if your landlord follows its complaint procedure.

The easiest way to do this is by using our helpful online form. The form will ask you about your complaint and you can upload supporting evidence.

Online complaint form