Authority agrees it made a mess of it by offering a woman a home already allocated to someone else

By Ben Lynch, Local Democracy Reporter

Hammersmith and Fulham council has apologised after showing a woman who had been on its housing waiting list for six years around a property which had already been accepted by someone else.

The council invited the woman, who has been on its housing register since 2017, to view the three-bedroom home in July 2023.

But while she was at the viewing she was told by a council officer the property had been accepted by another applicant. The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has now published its findings after the woman, referred to as Mrs X, complained.

The council will pay Mrs X a ‘symbolic payment’ of £250.

The Ombudsman’s report details how Mrs X, who lives with her family in a two-bedroom property, had bid for a three-bedroom home advertised by the council in June 2023.

She was contacted in July to be invited to a viewing and was, according to Mrs X, told by an officer that she was first in priority for the bid. She was then issued a written invitation by the council.

While at the property the following day, Mrs X was told the home had been accepted by another applicant who had been shown it via video. She was told that after the initial telephone conversation inviting her to view the property another applicant, who had already seen and refused it, had changed their mind and accepted the offer.

The ombudsman said: “I  find fault by the council for its unclear policy and for its poor communication with Mrs X about its shortlist process and the process of allocation where there had been an initial refusal of a property offer.

“The council’s failings caused injustice to Mrs X. It raised Mrs X’s expectations and caused her confusion, uncertainty, distress, and disappointment.”

A spokesman for the council said: “We have apologised to Mrs X for the poor service provided and agree with the findings of the Ombudsman.”

Pictured top: Hammersmith’s central hub (Picture: Wikimedia Commons/N Chadwick ; Wiki page HERE)