Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that the Council has broken the law by not providing the complainant with a larger home. This is because there is no worthwhile outcome we could achieve and because part of the complaint is late.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Ms X, says the Council has broken the law, and breached her human rights, by not providing a larger home. Ms X also says the Council told her she would qualify for a management transfer after one year. Ms X wants compensation, an apology and for the Council to move her to a two bedroom home.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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 an investigation if we believe it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome.(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
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. I read the complaint and the Council’s replies. I considered the legal definition of overcrowding and comments Ms X made in reply to a draft of this decision.

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What I found

Allocation policy

5. The policy says that someone who lacks one bedroom qualifies for band two on the housing register.
6. If someone is statutorily (legally) overcrowded and they need two extra bedrooms they qualify for band one.

What happened

7. The Council accepted Ms X as homeless. Ms X was eligible for a two bedroom home. Ms X signed a declaration accepting a one bedroom home as a way of being housed more quickly. The Council offered Ms X’s current home in January 2016. The offer letter said the flat was being offered as a secure tenancy.
8. In 2017 Ms X applied to join the housing register. I have seen an email in which she says she was told she would be able to apply for a transfer after one year. The Council initially refused her request as she had not been in the borough for five years. But, on review, it allowed her to join the housing register.
9. Ms X still lives in the same one bedroom flat with her teenage son. She is on the housing register in band two because she needs another bedroom. Her priority date on the register is July 2017.
10. Ms X says the lack of space is causing a strained relationship with her son and he is threatening to move out. Ms X says the Council told her she would only be in the flat for a year and that after a year she would get a management transfer. Ms X says the lack of space breaches the law and her human rights.
11. The Council has told Ms X she is in the correct band and it arranged for her flat to be measured. The Council has provided measurements for the flat but not for each room.

Assessment

12. Ms X needs a larger home and she says the size of the flat means she is legally overcrowded. I have considered the measurements provided by the Council and I think it is unlikely Ms X is statutorily overcrowded. I cannot be certain because I do not know the measurements of each room. However, I will not start an investigation because it would not achieve a worthwhile outcome. This is because even if Ms X is statutorily overcrowded, she only lacks one bedroom which is not a qualifying condition for band one on the housing register. Ms X would only qualify for band one if she was legally overcrowded and lacked two bedrooms. Even if we found that Ms X’s was statutorily overcrowded it would not lead to an increase in her banding or result in a move; neither the law nor the policy says the Council must immediately rehouse people who are statutorily overcrowded. As such, it would not be possible for us to say the Council has breached Ms X’s human rights or broken the law. In addition, these are declarations that can only be made by the courts.
13. I also will not start an investigation because part of the complaint is late. Ms X says she only accepted the flat in 2016 because the Council told her she could have a management transfer after a year. The email Ms X sent in 2017 says she believed she had been told she could apply for a transfer after a year and she has been registered for a larger home since 2017. If Ms X felt she had been misled into accepting the flat then she could have pursued a complaint in 2017. However, she did not complain to us until 2021 and I have not seen any good reason to delay making the complaint.

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Final decision

14. I will not start an investigation because it would not achieve a meaningful outcome and because part of the complaint is late.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman