Summary: Ms X complains about the Council’s handling of two bids for properties she made in 2015. The Ombudsman will not investigate the complaint because it is a late complaint and so falls outside our jurisdiction as the events happened too far in the past to be investigated now.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to as Ms X, says if the Council had dealt with her differently and had properly understood her mental health issues when it offered her two invitations to view two separate properties she had bid for in 2015 it is likely she would not still be waiting to move to the larger accommodation her family needs.

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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)

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How I considered this complaint

4. In considering the complaint I reviewed the information Ms X provided, including the Council’s response to the complaint. I gave Ms X the opportunity to comment on my draft decision and considered what she said.

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What I found

5. Ms X, who has mental health problems, has been waiting since 2009 to move into larger accommodation with her family.
6. In 2015 she made bids on two properties she was interested in. The Council invited her to view one property but this invitation was subsequently withdrawn. While Ms X was offered the second property, she did not accept it.
7. In 2020 Ms X complained to the Council about her housing situation and asked for information about what had taken place in 2015. The Council addressed her queries and clarified why, though she had been top of the bidding list in 2015, she has since slipped down the list to the mid-teens and twenties.
8. The Council explained that demand for social housing is higher, properties of the size Ms X requires are few in number and that the number of applicants with a higher priority than Ms X has increased. It advised her that she has 3 Reasonable Preference awards due to her circumstances and urged her to carry on bidding.
9. Unhappy with the response, and believing that if the Council had handled events from 2015 differently she might have moved into one of the two properties, Ms X complained to the Ombudsman.

Assessment

10. The restriction highlighted at paragraph 3 applies to Ms X’s complaint. It is too late now to look at events from 2015. They fall outside our jurisdiction and there are no grounds which warrant exercising discretion to investigate them now five years later.
11. In responding to my draft decision Ms X said she believed she had to exhaust the Council’s complaints procedure before coming to the Ombudsman and she has only recently done this. However, she did not make her complaint about events from 2015 until this year and it is too late for the Ombudsman to investigate the complaint now.

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Final decision

12. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because it is a late complaint and so falls outside our jurisdiction as the events happened too far in the past to be investigated now.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman