The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman upheld a complaint against the London Borough of Wandsworth concerning unsuitable and overcrowded temporary accommodation.
What the Ombudsman found
The Council owed the resident a homelessness duty and placed her and two children in a studio flat in 2023. It accepted in June 2023 that the accommodation was unsuitable, but the household was not rehoused until September 2025.
The Ombudsman explained that once the Council accepted the accommodation was unsuitable, it owed an immediate duty to provide suitable accommodation. The resident did not need to make a separate formal suitability-review request to establish a point the Council had already accepted.
Why this matters nationally
This decision exposes an important distinction: a council may acknowledge unsuitability yet still fail to deliver the practical remedy. Families should preserve the written acceptance, subsequent bidding or placement history, property details and evidence of continuing impact.
The remedy
The Council agreed to make a symbolic payment for the relevant period and review its process for cases where accommodation has been identified as unsuitable.
Black Sheep evidence lesson
Build a monthly schedule from the date of the authority’s acceptance. Record occupancy, overcrowding, health or educational effect, requests for action and every response. The operative failure is not merely poor housing—it is the gap between the accepted decision and what the authority then did.