Council Pays Out £10,000 After Failing Woman Made Homeless
Series of errors found to have added to her misery and distress
Wandsworth Town Hall
October 28, 2025
Wandsworth Council has paid a woman more than £10,000 after failing her in multiple ways when she became homeless. Among the borough’s shortcomings, identified in a new report, were delays in accepting it owed the woman support, inaccuracies in her housing plans and poor communication.
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman report found the woman, named Mrs X, experienced financial loss, significant distress and avoidable uncertainty as a result of the council’s errors. The authority agreed during the investigation to pay her the £10,385 she spent in securing private rented accommodation after it failed to adequately help her.
Mrs X approached the council as homeless in June 2023 after being served a section 21 (no fault) eviction notice by her landlord. The council accepted it had a duty to help prevent her homelessness and gave her a personalised housing plan, but delayed referring her to the private rented sector team for three months.
Mrs X became homeless when the section 21 notice expired in July. The council later advised her to remain in the property, which was against standard practice, and did not record any assessment of whether it was reasonable for her to do so.
The ombudsman found the council should have accepted it owed Mrs X a duty to relieve her homelessness and offer her suitable temporary accommodation when the notice expired, but it did not do so until July 2024 – an 11-month delay – after she had been served a possession order. This left her living in a property with no legal right to remain and at risk of court action.
The delay also meant the council did not accept it had a duty to find Mrs X suitable long-term accommodation in September 2023, as it should have. This delayed her placement in band B of the housing register by 10 months, although average waiting times showed she did not miss out on a property offer as a result.
Mrs X requested a referral for intermediate market rent accommodation in February, April and July 2024, but the council only explained in September that she needed to self-refer.
Mrs X’s support worker then sent the council a copy of her eviction warrant in October 2024, which was scheduled for November, but the council failed to maintain contact with her or offer her further temporary accommodation until May 2025. At this time, Mrs X told the authority she had secured private rented accommodation.
Mrs X made seven complaints to the council between September 2023 and July 2024. The council provided eight responses, but two of these were late and some of the issues she raised were never addressed.
The report said: “In summary, the council acted appropriately when Mrs X first sought assistance, but it subsequently failed in several key duties under the Housing Act 1996 and the Homelessness Code of Guidance.
“These failings included delays in accepting statutory duties, failure to assess whether it was reasonable for her to remain in the property, inaccuracies in her housing plans, inadequate consideration of medical evidence, and poor communication and complaint handling. While I cannot say whether the faults led to a direct loss of housing they did result in financial loss, and caused Mrs X significant distress, uncertainty, and time and trouble pursuing complaints and reviews.”
The ombudsman told the council to apologise to Mrs X for the injustice she experienced. It said the authority had offered more money than it would normally recommend in the circumstances, so it did not recommend any further compensation.
A Wandsworth Council spokesperson said: “Wandsworth Council is committed to providing safe, secure housing for those that need it. We’re sorry for the distress that Mrs X experienced and we have independently offered a payment of £10,384.61 to compensate her for the time she spent in private rented accommodation.
“We accept the ombudsman’s findings and have taken measures internally to prevent anything similar occurring, including training for staff. We are committed to learning from this experience to improve our processes.”
Charlotte Lilywhite - Local Democracy Reporter