Barnet Council agrees to apologise and pay her hundreds in compensation following investigation, reports Joe Ives, Local Democracy Reporter

Barnet Council has been ordered to apologise and pay reparations after causing a woman “distress, frustration and uncertainty” when she was evicted from her home.

The findings, reached last month, were recently published by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.

The woman, referred to as ‘Mrs X’, first contacted the council in late 2023 saying she believed she could be evicted from her home. She contacted the local authority several times between March and July 2024, informing housing officers that her eviction was imminent.

It wasn’t until 24th July, the day before her eviction, that a housing officer found temporary accommodation – outside of the borough. After Mrs X stated the proposed home was unsuitable, the council took until the day of her eviction itself to find a suitable alternative.

Shortly after, in early August 2024, Mrs X asked the local authority to do a suitability review of the property she had been moved into. Despite repeated requests, the council did not carry out the review until January the following year.

When it did, it concluded that the property it had given her was, indeed, unsuitable – and took until July 2025 to find her an acceptable replacement.

The ombudsman found the council at fault for “poor communication”, as well as delayed suitability assessment and “not reviewing documents it said it would”.

It found “no procedural fault” for not offering Mrs X a place of temporary accommodation until the day before her eviction, but added: “The council should have communicated more proactively with Ms X to explain the process it would follow rather than her chasing for updates and getting little response other than that the department was aware of her situation.

“This lack of timely communication was fault.”

The local authority was ordered to apologise to Mrs X “for the injustice caused by the identified fault” and pay her £150 “recognise the avoidable distress, frustration and uncertainty” caused by it.

The ombudsman also ordered the council to pay a further £1,807.50 to Mrs X for just over seven of the months it had left her in unsuitable temporary accommodation between the end of October 2024 and the beginning of July 2025.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) contacted Barnet Council, asking if it had completed these steps – and what measures it was taking to ensure a similar situation would not happen again.

A spokesperson for Barnet Homes, which manages the council’s housing stock, said: “Barnet Homes accepts the decision of the ombudsman and its recommendations in relation to this case.

“We strive to provide high standards of service to our customers but in this instance we have fallen short of these standards. We have apologised to Ms X and are waiting for Ms X to provide her bank details so that we can make her payment.

“We take learning seriously and are always seeking to improve how we deliver our services. We will work with our teams to ensure that correct processes are followed, and the correct advice is given to customers.”

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