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Nottingham Community Housing Association Limited (202125023)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202125023

Nottingham Community Housing Association Limited

29 June 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 is about the landlord’s response to the resident’s reports about:
    1.  Allegations made about him that led to the discharge of duty to provide temporary accommodation to him;
    2.  Anti-social behaviour.

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.
  2. 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

  1. The landlord provided the resident with temporary accommodation in a building that provides supported accommodation for homeless adults. To have use of this accommodation, residents need to be referred through the local authority’s housing aid team. On 13 November 2020 the resident signed an excluded licence agreement which allowed him to stay in this accommodation while the local authority investigated his homelessness application.
  2. On 19 February 2021 the local authority’s housing aid team discharged the duty to provide the resident with temporary accommodation due to allegations of sexually inappropriate behaviour towards other residents in the building. The resident considers that he was not given an opportunity to comment on the allegations before he was asked to leave the building and that the allegations against him might have been a result of his reports of antisocial behaviour and harassment.

Reasons

  1. Paragraph 39(m) of the Scheme states that the Ombudsman will not investigate complaints that, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, fall properly within the jurisdiction of another Ombudsman, regulator or complaint-handling body.
  2. Applications for assistance under the homelessness legislation (dealt with by the local housing authority or any other body acting on its behalf, which could include a housing association). This includes complaints about homelessness advice and homelessness prevention activities as well as how applications are dealt with and decisions about eligibility for and allocation (and management) of interim and temporary accommodation.
  3. Accordingly, the Ombudsman will not investigate the complaint about the landlord’s response to the to the resident’s reports about the allegations made about him that led to the discharge of duty to provide temporary accommodation to him; and anti-social behaviour. This is because, under paragraph 39(m) of the Scheme, these are matters for the LGSCO.
  4. The LGSCO would also be responsible for any complaint about the decisions and and/or actions of the local authority’s housing aid team.