CPD module: temporary moves, aka decants – best practice and pitfalls

Temporary moves can be a necessary step for housing staff to take when a resident’s home is deemed unfit for habitation, but the Housing Ombudsman’s casework shows that landlords are increasingly falling short of its expectations for carrying out the temporary move process effectively. 

This CPD article will explain what a temporary move is, when it should take place, and the ombudsman’s expectations of landlords throughout the process. It will detail the essential steps that a housing officer needs to take during a temporary move, the key things they should consider when finding alternative accommodation for a resident, and the most common ways that landlords fail to carry out temporary moves effectively – and how to avoid them. 

What is a temporary move?

A temporary move – often referred to as a decant – is when a resident is temporarily moved from their home into alternative accommodation. 

This can be a necessary step for landlords to take if the resident’s home is deemed unfit for habitation – for example after an event such as a fire or a leak, or during a regular inspection – to allow time for significant repairs, renovations or redevelopment of the property. Moves could also be used in other scenarios, such as in anti-social behaviour cases.

Terminology

The ombudsman is choosing to move away from the term ‘decants’ in favour of the term ‘temporary moves’, which is less dehumanising, and encourages landlords to also rethink their terminology.

When should a temporary move take place?

Temporary moves should take place if health and safety risks are identified in a resident’s home. 

To identify these risks, landlords should conduct a thorough health and safety risk assessment in any property that a home visit or home inspection reveals to be in poor condition, or potentially uninhabitable.

The circumstances in which a temporary move may be considered should be clearly defined and outlined in a policy for temporary move/decant procedures, which should be clear and accessible. 

Landlords should also have a separate policy for large-scale temporary moves (for example, if the integrity of a high-rise residential building is identified as a risk to many residents). 

Given their new obligations under Awaab’s Law, social landlords will need to utilise temporary moves more often. Housing management teams therefore need to think strategically about the temporary accommodation options they have available in different areas.

Developing a temporary move policy should involve scenario-planning for different situations, assessing the suitability of different temporary accommodation options, and overall cost and resource impact for each.

What are the essential steps that a housing officer needs to take for a temporary move?

• Communicate with residents
• Organise the temporary move
• Arrange access for contractors and tradespeople for remedial works
• Keep clear and accurate records of contact notes, calls or meetings about the temporary move throughout the process
• Carry out a thorough inspection and a health and safety check of the resident’s permanent home before they return, checking the schedule of remedial works to make sure it is complete 

When planning a temporary move, housing officers will need to apply discretion based on the individual situation of each household. For example, if the occupant of a property is a shift worker who works at night, they may need a temporary move if remedial works on their permanent property are scheduled to take place during the day, when they need to sleep (see case study here).

In practice, timescales for a move will also vary, and housing staff should carefully consider the risks before deciding how quickly to move residents. Poor early decision-making, such as deferring moves for too long, has been known to create further complications, for example the need for an emergency move, down the line. 

What are the key considerations when finding alternative accommodation?

Housing staff should conduct a needs assessment with residents to understand and try to cater for each individual household’s needs.

This could include finding temporary accommodation that is a reasonable distance from a resident’s work, family, school or medical appointments, or ensuring a support plan is in place for residents with protected characteristics or vulnerabilities. This is particularly important given the demographic change within social housing, which means that more residents are reporting long-term health conditions and mental health issues. 

If a resident chooses to stay with friends or family, housing staff should reassess their circumstances regularly, particularly if there is a delay to remedial works.

What do housing officers need to communicate to residents?

Timescales 

Housing staff need to provide residents with clear information about why they are being moved, how long they are expected to be living in temporary accommodation, and when they will be able to return to their permanent home. 

If there are any delays to the temporary move process, housing staff should notify residents at the earliest opportunity. 

If a resident notices any snagging issues once they have returned, their housing officer should provide a clear plan of action and timelines for when these issues will be resolved, keeping residents informed of any likely disruption as a result. 

Costs 

Housing staff must make sure residents are informed of the costs for which they are responsible, including rent payments for their permanent home or temporary accommodation, and any utility payments such as gas, electricity, internet and phone bills.

Equally, they need to share guidance with residents on which of their expenses their landlord will cover while they are in temporary accommodation. This could include the cost of their temporary accommodation, transportation, food and other living costs.

Belongings

Landlords should ensure residents know who is responsible for any belongings left in their property while it is unoccupied, and whether the landlord/insurance will cover any damage to these belongings (all of this should be clearly explained in the landlord’s policy and guidance).

What are the most common failings that landlords make during temporary moves?

• Poor decision-making. This can include leaving it too late to move residents (sometimes as a result of cost concerns), or failing to assemble the necessary information to make a robust, informed decision about the logistics of a move – often because the process and responsibility of decision-making is not made clear enough.
• Failure to properly risk-assess residents. This often happens when housing staff overly focus on the remediation works or temporary accommodation options without adequate consideration for an individual’s circumstances (see shift worker example above).
• Failure to communicate adequately with residents. When poor communication from housing staff leaves residents lacking clarity on vital details of a temporary move – including delays to remedial work that might lead to them staying longer in temporary accommodation, or needing to move temporary accommodation multiple times. 

What if a resident is reluctant to move?

Landlords should have a clear strategy for when a resident is reluctant to move even though there are health and safety risks in their home. This strategy should consider the feasibility of scheduling remedial works so that the resident can remain in situ, or, if this is not possible, how to communicate the necessity of a temporary move to a resident in an emotionally intelligent way. 

What are some examples of ‘best practice’ during temporary moves?

• Offering a single point of contact for residents helps to ensure consistent communication as well as accountability for their temporary move
• Conducting thorough and realistic assessments of temporary accommodation to ensure not just its quality, but its suitability for an individual’s circumstances
• Providing clear action plans for different temporary move scenarios, with a list of planned interventions for housing staff to follow
• Taking an empathetic approach with residents, properly listening to them and considering their needs, from their living environment to their community connections and medical needs
• Being responsive to specific requests from residents. One case involved a disabled resident who, unlike others in their building, would require a temporary move while building works took place in their block. 
• Robust record-keeping to enable staff to evidence the decisions they make around temporary moves, and their rationale
• Agility and responsiveness to respond to a new or changing situation while minimising the impact on residents (ideally limiting moves to no more than one)
• Joined-up thinking to ensure coherent policies that take into account new and changing requirements
• Eliminating disconnect between policy and practice at a managerial level. This might involve data-gathering, assessing operational pressures around temporary moves, and providing a means within the organisation to escalate issues with temporary moves

Summary

Temporary moves are a necessary but often challenging element of effective housing management. With the introduction of Awaab’s Law likely to create a need for more frequent temporary moves, housing management teams can follow the advice in this article to ensure their temporary move processes are robust and as comfortable as possible for tenants.

Next, answer the questions below. Get all the questions correct and you will receive a certificate confirming your award of 30 CPD minutes within 10 working days via email. Get any questions wrong and you can retake the test by refreshing your web browser.

Further reading

• Housing Ombudsman’s decant expectations of landlords
• Housing Ombudsman’s September 2024 Learning from severe maladministration reports on decants 

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