Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr B’s complaint about how the Council considered his homelessness application in 2013. The complaint is late and there are no good reasons for the Ombudsman to exercise his discretion and now investigate.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mr B, complains the Council’s decision in 2013 that he was not homeless was incorrect and it failed to provide him with information on how to make an appeal . He complains the Council failed to take account of his circumstances and as a result he had to move to a different Borough. He wants the Council to apologise, review the decisions it has made for other homeless applicants and provide him with Council accommodation.

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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. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I have considered the information provided by Mr B. This includes the Council’s response to his complaints. I sent a draft decision to Mr B and considered the comments he made in reply before I made my final decision.

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What I found

6. Mr B approached the Council in April 2013 to say he was homeless because he had to leave the matrimonial home. The Council decided Mr B was not in priority need and it had no homelessness duty to him. Mr B found accommodation in a hostel and says he stayed there for 2 years before moving out of the Borough.
7. Mr B believes the Council’s 2013 decision was incorrect because he was still homeless. Mr B says as a result, he has lost the opportunity to be housed in the Borough where he works and where his children live.
8. The Council’s homelessness decision was made in 2013 and Mr B’s complaint about that decision is therefore late. The Ombudsman can only investigate late complaints where there are good reasons to do so. I do not consider there are good reasons in this case, because Mr B had a right of appeal to the county court on a point of law about the Council’s decisions regarding his homelessness and priority need. The Ombudsman would not normally investigate a complaint where a person has or had a right of appeal to a court.
9. Mr B complains the Council did not provide him with advice in 2013 about how to review its decision, and he complained to the Council about this in 2017. But if Mr B believed his homelessness application and request for a review were not properly dealt with in 2013, he could have complained to the Ombudsman sooner.

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Final decision

10. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because the complaint is late and there are no good reasons for the Ombudsman to now investigate.

Investigator’s final decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman