Summary: Ms X complained about events connected to her housing situation and about how the Council dealt with her complaint. We do not intend to investigate the housing issues which occurred before August 2018 because Ms X did not complain to us about these issues within the normal 12 month time period and it is unlikely we could achieve anything meaningful now. The Council delayed in dealing with Ms X’s complaint. It has already offered her £100 which is satisfactory to address any injustice. Other aspects of Ms X’s complaint have not yet been considered by the Council. Therefore, we will not investigate them.

The complaint

1. Ms X complained the Council:
1. did not properly deal with her request for help with housing when she moved out of her mother’s house in 2017;
2. failed to deal with her complaints in a timely manner; and
3. told her it was likely it would not accept a housing application from her even though she had recently been issued with an eviction notice, because she was now living out of the borough.
2. Ms X said that if the Council had dealt properly with her homeless application in 2017, she would not have had to leave the borough. She says that as a result of moving out of the borough, she has experienced emotional and physical trauma. Ms X wants the Council to allow her to move back into the borough and to rehouse her.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The law says before investigating a complaint the Ombudsman must normally be satisfied the council complained about knows about the complaint and has had an opportunity to investigate and to reply. (Local Government Act 1974 section 26(5))
4. 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)
5. 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 it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome, or we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I spoke to Ms X and considered her view of her complaint.
7. I considered information provided by the Council. This included correspondence between Ms X and the Council and copies of her homelessness applications.
8. I gave the Council and Ms X the opportunity to comment on my draft decision.

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What I found

9. In July 2017, Ms X had to leave her mother’s house. She approached the Council who provided her with a homelessness form to complete. Ms X did not return the form. She moved into another relative’s property.
10. In August 2017, Ms X complained to the Council. She was unhappy with the attitude of the housing officer who had met with her in July 2017. She was also unhappy because the Council had not awarded her with medical priority points after the birth of her son and it had told her she was not eligible for a rehousing scheme.
11. The Council responded in February 2018. It apologised if she had found the officer’s attitude upsetting and explained why she was not eligible for medical priority points or the rehousing scheme.
12. Ms X remained unhappy and asked for her complaint to be escalated to stage 2 of the Council’s complaints process. She heard nothing further and so chased it for a response in May 2018.
13. The Council responded in October 2018. It apologised for the delays and poor communication and offered Ms X £100 to remedy any injustice this caused her. It reiterated what it had told her in its February 2018 response. It said the Council had recorded a homeless application from her in August 2018 pending further enquiries but her case had been closed when she told the Council she had moved into private rented accommodation in a neighbouring borough.
14. Ms X complained to the Ombudsman in September 2019. She said she had just been issued with an eviction notice for the property she was living in. She said she had asked the Council for help but because she was now living out of the borough it had told her it was unlikely it would be able to help her.

My findings

Events up to August 2018

15. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons to do so. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. The 12 month period starts from when the person first knew about the matter.
16. The further away in time an investigation takes place from the events which occurred, the more difficult it can be to achieve a meaningful remedy and to establish causality between events and their impact on the complainant and their current situation.
17. In this case, Ms X was aware of the events as they occurred. Therefore, she could have complained to us earlier. I can see no good reason why she did not do so. So there is no reason why I should exercise my discretion.
18. But even if I did exercise my discretion to investigate, Ms X’s situation has changed a number of times since these events occurred. I could not safely say that all or any of these changes came about as a direct consequence of the events of 2017. Therefore, even if I did find fault, it is unlikely that I could make a direct link to the current injustice Ms X says she is experiencing. Therefore, I will not investigate these matters.

Delays in communications

19. The Council has already admitted fault and offered Ms X £100 to remedy any injustice this caused her. This is an appropriate action to take. I will not investigate it any further.

Events after August 2018

20. We must give a council the chance to respond to a complaint before we will investigate. Ms X has not made a complaint to the Council about the events which occurred after August 2018. Therefore, I will not look at these complaints. If Ms X remains unhappy after the Council has responded, or the Council fails to respond in a timely manner, she can return to the Ombudsman.

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Final decision

21. The Council has already admitted it was fault when it delayed in dealing with Ms X’s complaints and has offered a satisfactory remedy. I will not investigate Ms X’s other complaints and have explained why in this decision statement. I have completed my investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman