Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s alleged failure to properly consider Mr X’s child Y’s medical conditions in its management of his housing application. This is because the complaint concerns events that took place more than 12 months ago and there is no good reason to exercise discretion to investigate matters that took place this long ago.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council failed to consider his child Y’s mental health in its management of his request for housing assistance.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
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 Mr X and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. In September 2023 Mr X raised a number of complaints relating to the Council’s management of his application for housing assistance in 2017, citing unsuitable housing conditions and failure to properly consider his child Y’s mental health issues.
7. The Council explained that as the complaint concerned issues that were over three years old, the Council no longer held housing records for Mr X and it was unable to provide a formal response.
8. Mr X remains unhappy with the situation and wants us to find the Council at fault. The Ombudsman will not usually investigate events that took place more than 12 months ago unless there are good reasons to do so. In this case, there are limited records documenting what took place at the time and it is unlikely that the Ombudsman would be able to provide Mr X with a worthwhile outcome.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it concerns events that took place more than 12 months ago and there is no good reason to exercise discretion to investigate matters that took place this long ago.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman