Summary: Miss X complained about the Council’s decision to remove her housing application from the housing register when she failed to return the annual renewal form. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained that the Council removed her from the housing register when she failed to return a renewal form in 2018. She only found out she was no longer on the list when she made an enquiry in 2021. She wants the Council to re-instate her application because she says she did not receive the form.

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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, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

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

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
5. The complainant now has an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I will consider their comments before making a final decision.

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My assessment

6. Miss X was on the Council’s housing list for a bigger property from 2009. In 2021 she asked the Council about her current position on the list and was informed that she had been removed in 2018 because the annual review for had not been returned.
7. Miss X says she did not receive a form and she was unaware of being removed. The Council says it wrote to her in 2018 and inform her the application was removed in line with its policy. The Council’s allocations policy requires renewal forms to be returned for applicants to remain on the list. If no form is returned no reminders are issued and the application is removed.
8. We may not question the merits of decisions which have been properly made. We do not comment on judgements councils make, unless they are affected by fault in the decision-making process. The Ombudsman may not find fault with a council’s assessment of a housing application/ a housing applicant’s priority if it has carried this out in line with its published allocations scheme.
9. If her 2018 application did not arrive then it was necessary for her to make enquiries with the Council at the time. the letters are issued by standard second class mail and the same system applies to all applicants. Councils are not responsible for the delivery of post once it has been entered into the mail system.

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Final decision

We will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman