Summary: We have upheld Mr Y’s complaint about the Council’s handling of his late relative's, Mrs X’s, care charges. The Council has agreed to waive some of the care charges. This provides a proportionate remedy for the injustice caused.

The complaint

1. Mr Y complains on behalf of his late relative, Mrs X. He says the Council wrongly charged her for care between July 2022 and September 2022 after she had left the care home.
2. Mr Y says the matter has caused him distress. He wants the Council to waive the care charges.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we are satisfied with the actions an organisation has taken or proposes to take. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(7), as amended)
4. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
5. 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

6. I considered information provided by Mr Y and the Council.
7. I also considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code and the Competition and Markets Authority Guidance on Care Homes Consumer Law (the CMA Guidance).

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My assessment

8. The Council arranged Mrs X’s care placement at a care home from May to September 2022.
9. Mrs X was admitted to hospital in late June 2022. On 14 July 2022, the care home manager told Mr Y that Mrs X needed nursing care and would not be returning to the care home. Her family cleared her room later that month and she did not return to the home.
10. Later in 2022, the Council invoiced Mrs X for care charges covering May to September 2022. Mr Y complained to the Council about the invoice. The Council investigated his complaint but did not provide him a response at that time.
11. In late 2025, the Council sought payment of the outstanding charges again. Mr Y made a further complaint, but the Council declined to consider it because the events were older than 12 months.

Assessment

12. We acknowledge that Mr Y’s complaint is late. However, we have decided to exercise discretion to consider this complaint because the Council did not provide Mr Y a response about the care charges in 2022. Further, the Council took no apparent action to pursue the outstanding charges until three years later. I therefore consider that it was reasonable for Mr Y to assume the matter was resolved until the Council contacted him again in 2025.
13. If we were to investigate it is likely we would find the Council at fault for charging Mrs X for care services until September 2022. This is because:

• We consider the conversation between the care home and Mr Y on 14 July 2022 amounted to a termination notice by the care home. The CMA Guidance states that care homes should give residents at least 28 days’ notice to leave. We therefore consider that Mrs X’s placement should have ended on 11 August 2022.
• The care home was aware that Mrs X’s family had cleared her room in late July 2022 and made no further contact with the family.
• The Council was also aware Mrs X could not return to the care home and the case records confirm it knew she was waiting nursing placement as of late July 2022.
• In these circumstances, we consider it was not appropriate for the Council to continue charging for Mrs X’s placement until September 2022 when it was clear she would not be returning.

14. We therefore asked the Council to consider resolving this complaint early.

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Agreed Action

15. To its credit, the Council has agreed to resolve the complaint by completing the following action within one month of this decision statement:
• Waive the care charges for the period 11 August 2022 to 5 September 2022; and
• Apologise to Mr Y for the error and the delay in resolving this matter.
16. The Council should provide us with evidence to show it has completed the above action.

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Final decision

17. We have upheld this complaint because the Council has agreed to resolve the complaint early by providing a proportionate remedy for the injustice caused to Mr Y.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman