The Housing Ombudsman has highlighted landlords’ poor handling of temporary moves during works on a resident’s property, with some residents having spent months or years in temporary accommodation and sometimes moved between different hotels. 

The Ombudsman said that the human cost of moving residents into temporary accommodation to carry out repairs is “laid bare” in the latest ‘learning from severe maladministration’ report. 

He stated that the term the sector uses for these moves, ‘decants,’ is “crude, dehumanising, and stigmatising for what can be a difficult and emotional process for any person”.