Summary: Mrs X complains about contact from the Council about the repayment of a housing repair loan relating to a property she inherited. We will not investigate as the complaint is made late to us and there are not good reasons to investigate now.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains about contact from the Council about the repayment of a housing repair loan relating to a property she inherited. Mrs X says she felt the Council was ‘hounding’ her for the money when it was not legally due to be paid.

Back to top

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)
3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement or we cannot change the outcome of the complaint (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

4. I have considered what Mrs X said in her complaint and sent her my draft decision on it for her comments. I have considered the comments her representative made in response in reaching this final decision.

Back to top

What I found

5. Mrs X complained to the Council in October 2019 about its contact with her about a housing repair loan on a property she had inherited. Mrs X complained the contact was inappropriate as the property had by that time not been sold, and the loan was only due for repayment once that had taken place.
6. Prior to Mrs X making her complaint, the Council says it had confirmed to Mrs X, via her solicitors, that payment was not required. However, Mrs X continued with her complaint as she says she had felt hounded by the Council over a period of several months.
7. Mrs X was dissatisfied with the Council’s first complaint response and asked it to escalate her complaint to stage 2 of its procedure at the end of November 2019. Mrs X asked the Council to provide a timely response so she could escalate her complaint to the Ombudsman if she remained unsatisfied. The Council provided Mrs X with its stage 2, and final, response in January 2020. The Council’s letter gave the contact details for the Ombudsman. Mrs X complained to us in December 2020.

Analysis

8. Mrs X has not complained to us within a year of knowing about the problem she complained to the Council about. It is reasonable to expect Mrs X to have complained to us sooner. I do not consider therefore that there are good reasons for us to investigate now.
9. Notwithstanding the restriction in respect of the timing of the complaint, while Mrs X remains unhappy about the Council’s contact with her about the loan, from our perspective, the remaining injustice to Mrs X is not sufficient to warrant our involvement. It is also unlikely we can change the outcome of the complaint.

Back to top

Final decision

10. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because the complaint is made late and there are not good reasons to investigate now.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman