Homeless man missed out on housing after Northumberland County Council changed his email address
by James Robinson · ChronicleLiveNorthumberland County Council has been ordered to make a payout to a homeless man after an error caused him to miss out on a new home.
According to a report by the Local Government Ombudsman, the man - identified only as Mr X - complained a member of council staff "intentionally" amended the email address the council held for him, causing him to miss out on an offer of a property. The report said Mr X had been sleeping rough for "several years" and was in the top priority of the council's housing register.
The council has been ordered to apologise to Mr X and pay him a total of £1,400 to "reflect the injustice and distress its faults caused him". Mr X received a direct offer of a one-bedroom flat in June 2024, but declined the offer as he did not want to live in the location offered.
The report stated that the council called Mr X in late November to inform him that an offer of housing would be made via email, but this was never received. Mr X contacted the council two weeks after the offer was made, but was told the offer had been withdrawn and the property had been allocated to someone else.
Mr X said he was "very distressed" to miss out as it had been in his preferred location (town B) and was a short walk to his GP surgery. The council said it had called Mr X twice during the offer period, but he had not answered and a letter sent to an agreed correspondence address had not been received.
Mr X explained he had been hospitalised over the Christmas period. He lodged a complaint with the council, and a subsequent investigation found that the email address was entered incorrectly. Mr X alleged this had been done "deliberately" and pointed out he was still receiving emails from the homelessness team, meaning the problem was only with the council's Homefinder system.
The Ombudsman notes that Mr X had entered his email address correctly at the point of his online application to the Homefinder system. Therefore, the investigator found that this was fault on the part of the council.
But because there was no evidence of when, why or by whom the change was made, the Ombudsman was unable to " make a finding as to whether this change was made accidentally or intentionally."
It was also acknowledged that Mr X "may have contributed to his own injustice" by failing to answer the council's calls. However, this was mitigated by the fact that "it would not be reasonable to expect a person who is street homeless to operate perfect communication systems."
The council agreed to apologise to Mr X; provide an explanation to the Ombudsman about how it will ensure the same fault does not reoccur; and pay the complainant £200 a month from November 2023 - the date of the missed housing offer - until June 2024 - when he was offered another house - a total of £1,400.
Responding to the ombudsman's report, a spokeswoman for the council said: “The council accepts the findings in the report and has apologised and recompensed the customer. As this was down to human error, we have reviewed the appropriate procedures.”
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