Summary: Ms B complains the Council put a legal charge on her mother’s property which the family knew nothing about. The Ombudsman will not investigate the complaint because it is a late complaint which falls outside our jurisdiction.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to as Ms B, says the Council put a legal charge on her mother’s property which the family knew nothing about. She says they had no notification of the charge until her mother’s house was recently sold and £36,000 taken from the sale proceeds to cover her mother’s care costs.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

3. In considering the complaint I spoke to Ms B and reviewed the information she and the Council provided. I gave Ms B the opportunity to comment on my draft decision and considered what she said.

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What I found

4. Ms B’s mother, Mrs X, took out an equity release mortgage on her property with a finance company. A standard term of such contracts requires properties to be sold when the owner enters into residential care.
5. In 2015 Mrs X entered into residential care and the Council offered her a Deferred Payment Agreement which meant she could delay paying her contribution towards her care costs. The Council says Ms B telephoned in February 2015 advising it of her disabled brother who was over 60 and who lived in the property and about the equity release scheme relating to the property. The Council says Ms B said her mother would not be able to pay her care fees without selling her property.
6. Because the circumstances of Ms B’s brother meant the property could have been considered for a disregard so that its value would not have been taken into account in assessing the amount Mrs X would have to pay towards her care costs, the Council asked for various documentation to enable it to decide whether such a disregard should be applied to Mrs X’s property.
7. While it waited for this information the Council placed a charge against the property in April 2015. Over the next year the Council sent 8 letters to Ms B asking for information relevant to its decision about the disregard which Ms B provided in full by April 2016.
8. Although the property was not sold when Mrs X moved into residential care, the Council decided that had it been sold she would have been in the position of being a self-funder who would have to pay for her care. However, when Mrs X died in 2017, Ms B’s brother continued living in the property and the Council left the charge in place so that Mrs X’s fees would be paid once the property was eventually sold.
9. Ms B’s brother continued to live at the property until 2019 when it became too much for him to manage and it was sold. On its sale, the Council took from the sale proceeds the deferred care fees Mrs X had accrued. Ms B says this was the first she knew of the charge and complained to the Council about it.
10. The Council responded to Ms B’s complaints about this matter. It explained the action it had taken and said that in June 2015 she had emailed the Council about the non-payment of outstanding client contribution invoices and confirmed that she knew that a charge had been placed on the property. It says she was told the charge would be removed once all current and future care fees for Mrs X had been paid.

Assessment

11. The restriction highlighted at paragraph 2 applies to apply to this complaint because Ms B was aware of the charge back in 2015. She says that while she was aware of it, she did not understand its consequences and that things were very confusing and had not been properly explained to her in 2015 and 2016. However, it would have been at this time that Ms B should have sought clarification and pursued any complaint she had. Four years on, it is too late for the Ombudsman to investigate the complaint and I see no grounds which warrant exercising discretion to do so now. Moreover, an investigation is unlikely to lead to a different outcome for Ms B.

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Final decision

12. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because it is a late complaint which falls outside our jurisdiction.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman