An evicted tenant has said that Buckinghamshire Council’s ‘failures’ while he was at risk of becoming homeless affected his mental health.

The man, known only as ‘Mr B’, complained that the unitary authority failed to help him find a new house after his landlord served him with a Section 21 or so-called ‘no-fault’ eviction notice to leave ‘Property A’.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman said the council was ‘at fault’ for offering Mr B a property with one bedroom instead of two.

In a new decision, the regulator said the council should have taken note of a report by an occupational therapist, which recommended that the tenant should move into a two-bedroom home.

This was because Mr B needed another room for his overnight carer to sleep in due to his ‘physical and mental health issues’.

The ombudsman wrote: “The council’s fault has caused Mr B a significant injustice in the form of uncertainty as he cannot be satisfied the council considered his review properly.”

After Mr B contacted the council for housing assistance in December 2022, he eventually moved back into the home of a previous landlord, ‘Property B’.

The council then closed the resident’s housing application in September last year, allegedly ‘without fully assessing his circumstances’ and also putting Mr B in the lower priority Band E ‘despite his medical evidence’.

The ombudsman’s report read: “He said its failures affected his mental and physical health and he had fallen in Property A and Property B. He said it failed to offer him suitable alternative accommodation.”

The council has apologised to the resident and accepted the ombudsman’s finding that it should have told Mr B in June 2023 to complete a new housing register application so it could reassess his position.

However, the ombudsman found that the council had acted appropriately by assessing Mr B’s circumstances, noting that it had awarded him the ‘prevention duty’ for his homelessness and issued a personal housing plan.

The watchdog also said the council had followed the steps in the plan by contacting its private rental team to see if there were any suitable properties.

On the advice of the ombudsman, the council has agreed to carry out a new review of Mr B’s housing application by October 16 this year, with particular attention to his bedroom need.

Mark Winn, the council’s cabinet member for housing and regulatory services, told the Bucks Free Press: “Buckinghamshire Council accepts the findings of the ombudsman and will take on board the learnings from this case.

“We have apologised to Mr B for any distress caused and are progressing the recommended actions.

“We are committed to supporting all those in the county are homeless or at risk of being made homeless and we continue to review and update our practices in order to improve and enhance our customer experience.”