Council Offered Mother and Son Studio Flat After Eviction
Watchdog slams borough for providing unsuitable accommodation
Wandsworth Town Hall. Picture: Google Streetview
July 25, 2023
Wandsworth Council has been slammed after offering a mum and son a flat with a single bed and no space to add another when it evicted them. The woman claimed she had to sofa surf with her son for 10 days after being offered the ‘unsuitable’ studio flat by Wandsworth Council, which must pay her £850 after a watchdog investigation.
The mum, named Miss F in the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman report, claimed she ‘experienced distress and uncertainty, which caused her physical and emotional health to worsen’ due to how the council handled her housing situation. She lived with her son in her sister’s council flat for several years.
The council served her with a notice to quit in 2019 after discovering her sister was no longer living there. A court granted the council a possession order of the flat in spring 2022, and the council sent Miss F an eviction notice that summer.
The ombudsman found it was only “shortly before” the mum’s eviction that she “received some information and advice about the process”. She said she had contacted her housing officer multiple times in the two months after making her homeless application but received no response.
The council offered Miss F and her son a studio flat outside the borough as a temporary measure after evicting them. It was a “small studio with a single bed, a narrow hall and kitchenette area and a bathroom” which Miss F found to be “unsuitable” and refused, according to the report.
It said, “She told the council it only had a single bed and was too small to meet her and her son’s needs. She also said it was far away from her friends and support network and was so far away a car would be needed for travel, which she did not have.
“Miss F said she and her son had to stay on friend’s sofas for 10 days until the council offered them another temporary accommodation flat, which she accepted and moved into.”
The ombudsman said the flat “was not suitable” for the family and that it had “no space to replace the single bed with a double bed, or to put another single bed”. The watchdog ruled the council was at fault for placing the family in the flat which “could not meet their basic needs”.
The report added, “The council had the opportunity to identify interim accommodation for Miss F and her son in the months leading up to the eviction but failed to properly assess this and communicate with her. This was therefore a missed opportunity to properly understand their needs and locate potential interim accommodations.”
It also found Miss F had to wait around four weeks, from her first request to the council, to access her belongings. She said she had to buy “essentials such as bedding, towels, kitchen equipment and utensils” as a result.
The council had already apologised to Miss F and offered her £500, but the ombudsman found this “was not enough to remedy the distress, uncertainty and costs” she and her son experienced. It ordered the authority pay her £850 instead.
Wandsworth Council has been contacted for comment.
Charlotte Lilywhite - Local Democracy Reporter