Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s involvement in the revocation of the complainant’s enduring power of attorney for his friend in 2009. The complaint is historic and lies outside our jurisdiction because it is late. There are not good grounds to exercise discretion to consider this matter now over ten years later.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mr X, complains about the Council’s involvement in the revocation of his enduring power of attorney for his friend, Mrs Y, in 2009.

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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.
3. 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)
4. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
5. We may investigate a complaint on behalf of someone who has died or who cannot authorise someone to act for them. The complaint may be made by:

• their personal representative (if they have one), or
• someone we consider to be suitable. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26A(2), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. Mr X complains about the Council’s involvement in the revocation of the enduring power of attorney he held for his friend Mrs Y. Mrs Y revoked the power of attorney in January 2009 and appointed a new attorney.
9. Mrs Y sadly died in 2011.
10. In response to our initial enquiries, the Council confirmed it has not received a formal complaint from Mr X about this matter. It says it would not consider it via its complaints procedure now because it is about matters than are more than 12 months old, so it is out of time.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. The complaint lies outside our jurisdiction because it is late, as per the restriction set out in paragraph 3, above. The matters complained about are historic and there are not good grounds to exercise discretion to consider it now. Mr X was clearly aware of the matter at the time and could have raised a complaint to the Council and subsequently this office much sooner.
12. Further to this, we would not accept a complaint from Mr X on behalf of Mrs Y on these matters, even if it had been made on time. This is because from January 2009 onwards he was no longer her appointed representative.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman