Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of Miss X’s housing register application. She complains the Council has refused to move her to a bigger property. This is because the complaint is outside the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction as it is late and there are no good reasons for why Miss X could not have complained to us earlier.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains about the Council’s handling of her housing register application. She says she asked the Council to move her to a bigger property, but the Council refused to do so.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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 the complainant and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Miss X asked the Council to move her to a larger property as she was overcrowded in her current property.
7. The Council responded to Miss X’s complaint about the matter in March 2021. The Council explained it recognised Miss X needed a larger property and that her housing application was registered for a transfer to a 2 bedroom property. The Council also told Miss X of her position number on the transfer list.
8. The Council also explained it could not rehouse Miss X out of turn as there were other households ahead of her on the transfer list. The Council said there was no evidence of any fault with its handling of Miss X’s housing application as she was registered for the correct size property for her household and the correct number of points had been allocated.
9. The Council’s complaint response told Miss X how she could escalate her complaint. The Council told us Miss X did not ask for the complaint to be escalated to stage 2.
10. Therefore, the complaint is late. This is because Miss X was aware of her concerns about the Council’s handling of her housing application and request for a move to a larger property in 2021. This is longer than 12 months ago.
11. In addition, if Miss X was unhappy with the Council’s response to her complaint in March 2021, it is reasonable to have expected her to escalate her complaint to stage 2. It is likely had she done this, the Council would have signposted her to us in its final complaint response. Therefore, I do not consider there are any good reasons for why we should exercise discretion to consider the late complaint.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because it is outside the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction. This is because the complaint is late and there are no good reasons for why she could not have complained to us earlier.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman