Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of Ms B’s housing application. This is because part of the complaint is late. Also, there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating the Council’s more recent actions.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will refer to as Ms B, complains about the Council’s handling of her housing register application. Ms B says she has been complaining to the Council since 2006. Ms B says the property is overcrowded and she needs to move to a ground floor property because she has knee and back pain which makes it painful to climb the stairs. Ms B would like the Council to help her family move to a more suitable property.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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 considered information provided by Ms B and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. We will not investigate Ms B’s complaint about the Council’s handling of her housing application since 2006. This is because Ms B has not complained to us within 12 months of becoming aware of the issue she complains about.
7. I find it was reasonable for Ms B to have complained to us before now. So, there are not good reasons to use our discretion to investigate what happened before 2020.
8. We could investigate what has happened during the last 12 months before Ms B complained to us. But, there is not enough evidence of fault to justify an investigation.
9. The information indicates the Council’s assessment of Ms B’s overcrowding is in line with the Council’s housing allocations scheme. The Council says the family need a three bedroom property and their current property has three rooms, including the living room, which can be used as bedrooms. The Council explained that Ms B’s eldest daughter has her own housing application so cannot be included in the overcrowding assessment.
10. Also, the Council says when Ms B updated her housing application in June 2020 to indicate a need to move for health reasons, she answered ‘No’ in the section: ‘stairs that you are unable to use’. This does not suggest the Council was at fault for not awarding priority for medical reasons.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Ms B’s complaint because part of the complaint is late and there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating what has happened more recently.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman