Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s consideration of Miss X’s homeless application in 2020 and its assessment of her housing application in 2022. We will not exercise discretion to consider the homeless matter which was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. There is no evidence to suggest that Miss X could not have complained to us sooner. There is insufficient evidence of fault in the assessment of Miss X’s current application for housing.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained about the Council’s consideration of a homeless application in 2020. She says she was not rehoused after her home was broken into. She applied to the Council’s housing register in 2022 and feels that she should have additional priority since she had previously made a homeless application.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in the decision making, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered the information provided by the complainant.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Miss X says her flat was broken into in 2020 while she was out. Her social housing landlord, which is a housing association advised her to make a homeless application to the Council. She discussed her situation with the Council and the Council says she decided not to be placed in emergency accommodation and chose to remain in her secure tenancy.
7. In 2022 Miss X made an application to the Council for housing. She says that the Council should give her application higher priority because of the incident in 2020 and because she was not placed in temporary accommodation at the time. Her current application has medium priority due to her having one bedroom short for her family needs.
8. Miss X did not challenge the Council’s homeless offer in 2020 or make a complaint to the Council or to us within 12 months. She only raised the matter following the assessment of her current housing application. If she wished to move out of her flat into emergency accommodation at the time then it was reasonable for her to complain to us within 12 months of the approach to the Council.
9. Miss X is currently assessed under the Council’s housing allocations policy as having 200 points for overcrowding with a need for two bedrooms. There has been no repeat of the incident in 2020 and the perpetrators were not identified. There is no category under the allocations scheme for the incident to give her current application higher priority.
10. 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. We recognise that the demand for social housing far outstrips the supply of properties in many areas.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s consideration of Miss X’s homeless application in 2020 and its assessment of her housing application in 2022. We will not exercise discretion to consider the homeless matter which was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. There is no evidence to suggest that Miss X could not have complained to us sooner. There is insufficient evidence of fault in the assessment of Miss X’s current application for housing.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman