Council left domestic abuse victim to sofa surf for nearly two years, Ombudsman finds

In a report, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman said the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea (RBKC) had agreed to apologise, backdate the priority date of the woman’s housing register application and make a symbolic payment to remedy the injustice.

The resident raised issue with the way her homeless application was managed. In particular, she claimed RBKC wrongly closed her homelessness case in November 2023 and July 2024 and failed to give her a right to ask for a review of its decisions and failed to contact her between April 2024 and July 2024, contributing to her homelessness.

It was claimed that the council additionally failed to consider her disclosure of domestic abuse and instead made her re-apply as homeless in January 2025.

The woman had first approached the council as homeless on 26 June 2023 saying she had been sleeping on the sofa in her parents’ home but due to overcrowding she had been asked to leave.

Her application said, “I have been involved in domestic violence” and referred to support she had received from domestic abuse charities and referred to her mental health problems.

However, RBKC failed to complete homelessness inquiries or contact the woman before closing the case on 8 November 2023.

The woman complained to the council having not heard back for almost a year, prompting a homelessness assessment. The assessment noted Miss D’s mental health issues but failed to record her domestic abuse history.

A few months later, an advocate re-informed the council that the resident fled her property in 2023 and had been sofa surfing since, with RBKC allocating the case to a domestic abuse housing officer.

After a new housing application was opened and closed as there had been “no reply”, the council did not issue a letter ending the prevention duty.

An advocate again contacted the council in November 2024 citing that the resident had been unable to engage with the previous application’s enquiries due to poor mental health and asked for her homelessness application to be re-opened. The council said a new homelessness application would need to be made.

In response to a complaint, the council accepted that the case should not have been closed and that there had been delays in progressing the application from then until July 2024, as well as having no record of a request for reasonable adjustments.

The council accepted the relief duty and issued a personalised housing plan in May. It offered Miss D interim accommodation, which she moved into the following month.

The Ombudsman found reason to believe the resident was threatened with homelessness in June 2023, so the council’s failure to carry out inquiries was fault. Had these inquiries been made, it was likely the prevention duty would have been owed from July 2023.

The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea has agreed to apologise, pay £3,150 to remedy the resident being caused to live in unsuitable accommodation for 21 months as well as £500 to remedy the distress and uncertainty caused.

Finally, the effective date for her housing register application will be set as 26 June 2023.

A Kensington and Chelsea Council spokesperson said: “We apologise for the failings highlighted by the Ombudsman and accept that, in this case, we did not provide the standard of service the resident had the right to expect. We have accepted the Ombudsman’s findings and agreed actions, which we will complete.

“Since the events covered in the report, we have continued to train housing staff on supporting people affected by domestic abuse, and we are carrying out wider work to strengthen how we handle homelessness applications in line with legislation.”

Harry Rodd