Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision not to backdate the complainant’s housing application to 1995. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council and because it is unlikely we could add to the Council’s response.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Ms X, complains the Council will not backdate her housing application to 1995 when she first applied for housing.

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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 an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation.

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

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Ms X and the Council. This includes letters the Council sent to Ms X and the housing allocations policy. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code and comments Ms X made in reply to a draft of this decision.

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My assessment

4. Ms X says she used to live in a Council property and that she applied to join the housing register in 1995. In 2012 she moved to her current home and in 2020 she applied to the Council for housing. The Council accepted her application from March 2020. Ms X asked the Council to backdate the application to 1995.
5. The Council checked all available records, back to the 1980s, and found no record of Ms X making an application before 2020. It said that people on the housing register have to re-register every year and report all changes in their circumstances. It said there was no record of Ms X reporting her move in 2012. Ms X has not provided any evidence to show that she has had a previous application. The Council declined to backdate the application.
6. I will not start an investigation because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council. It has responded appropriately by checking all available records, and historic databases, but found nothing to indicate Ms X applied for housing in 1995. It has also pointed out that if Ms X had joined the register then there are several changes that she should have reported but did not. Ms X says she did not know she needed to report changes but, if she thought she had made an application in 1995, then it is reasonable to expect that she would have made periodic contact with the Council and checked the housing register section of the Council’s website.
7. I also will not start an investigation because it is unlikely I could add to the Council’s response. This is because neither the Council nor Ms X have any records so we could not prove or disprove that Ms X made an application in 1995. In addition, even if Ms X applied in 1995, the application would have lapsed because she did not report changes in her circumstances.
8. Ms X says the Council has lost a record of her living in a Council property in the 1990s. She says this proves it has lost the records of her applying to the housing register. But, these are different systems and the Council’s response was hindered by the fact that Ms X initially gave a different address for the Council property. But, the lack of a record for a Council tenancy that Ms X may have held, is not proof that she applied for housing in 1995.

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Final decision

9. I will not start an investigation because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council, and it is unlikely I could add to the Council’s response.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman