Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint about the sale of a property in 2004. The complaint is made too late but we could not, in any case, carry out a meaningful investigation after so long.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to here as Mr B, has complained fault by the Council led to the sale of his late mother’s house in 2004 not realising the full market value.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate. It says we cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
3. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if, for example, we believe a meaningful investigation would not be possible. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I have considered what Mr B said in his complaint. Mr B commented on a draft before I made this decision.

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What I found

5. Mr B sold his mother’s house in 2004 to pay for her care. He says that, because of some fault by the Council, the sale was rushed and the house was not sold for the full market value.
6. Mr B has argued he could not complain to us earlier because he did find out until 2012 that a care commissioning group failed to properly consider his mother’s situation in 2004. In turn, this delayed any possible complaint to the Council and then to us.

Analysis

7. I consider the complaint is made too late because it is 15 years since the matter complained about and there is no exceptional reason the restriction I describe in paragraph 2 should not apply.
8. However, even if this were not the case, I do not consider we could carry out a meaningful investigation after so much time has passed. We could not, for example, determine with any certainty:
• whether Mr B decided to sell house by auction because of some fault by the Council; or
• what the value of the house might have been had it been sold on the open market rather than by auction.

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Final decision

9. I have decided we will not investigate this complaint for the reasons given in paragraphs 8 and 9.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman