Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the housing register because there is insufficient evidence of injustice and because part of the complaint is late.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Ms X, says the Council wrongly removed her name from her housing application in 2018 and will not let her re-join. Ms X wants the Council to re-instate her application.

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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 any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained. (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 X and the Council. This includes the complaint correspondence, letters from 2018, and the lettings policy. I also considered our Assessment Code and comments Ms X made in reply to a draft of this decision.

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My assessment

5. Ms X joined the housing register in 2007. She was placed in the reserve band which meant she was adequately housed and had virtually no chance of being offered social housing.
6. In October 2018 the Council asked Ms X to complete a form, and provide some information, so it could review her application. It asked her to reply in 14 days. The letter said her bidding number had been given to her mother but, if Ms X qualified for the register after the review, she would not lose out. Ms X says she contacted the Council in 2018 to say this was wrong and her mother had not applied for housing. Ms X says the Council did not resolve this issue.
7. In January 2019 the Council wrote to Ms X to say it had closed her application because she had not responded to the review request. It told her she had 21 days to appeal against the decision to cancel the application. Ms X did appeal.
8. In response to Ms X’s recent complaint the Council apologised for adding her mother to the application. Due to the information lost in the cyber attack the Council cannot say what happened or why. The Council apologised for the error but said it had not had any negative impacts because Ms X was in the reserve band and was never likely to be housed. The Council also explained that it would have removed Ms X from the housing register in October 2021 because, under the new policy, the reserve band has been removed. The Council explained that due to the shortage of social housing only people with a housing need, as defined by the new policy, can join the register. The Council said Ms X could apply to join the register, under the October 2021 policy, if her circumstances have changed.
9. I will not start an investigation because part of the complaint is late. The Council added Ms X’s mother’s name to the application in 2018 and removed Ms X from the housing register in January 2019. But, Ms X did not complain to us until February 2022. Ms X could have complained in 2018 or asked for an appeal in 2019. Ms X says she was unaware of us in 2018. But, if she had completed the Council’s complaints process in 2018 she would have been signposted to us and she could have appealed in 2019 against the cancellation of her application.
10. I also will not investigate this complaint because there is insufficient evidence of injustice. Ms X had been on the housing register since 2007 but because she was in the reserve band there was virtually no chance of her being housed. And, even without the error in 2018, the Council correctly removed her from the housing register in 2019 because she did not complete the review. Further, Ms X would not have qualified from October 2021 due to the new policy.
11. Ms X says she was told there would be a 15 year wait for housing from the reserve band. I have not seen anything to support this statement. But, even this statement was provided to Ms X, this was not a guarantee she would make a successful bid after 15 years and she was removed after 12 years because she did not complete the review.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate this complaint because part of the complaint is late and because there is insufficient evidence of injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman