Summary: We will not look into Miss X’s complaint. This is because the complaint is more than a year old and there is not a good reason for it being late. We think we would not be able to know what went on in 2021. We think we would not be able to get what Miss X wants.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained that in 2021 the Council gave her family housing that was not ok. She says the Council was wrong to offer this housing. Miss X says the Council was wrong that it did not get her old landlord to offer her new housing. Miss X says that because of this her family had to live in housing that was not ok. This cost them money and made them stressed and ill.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We look into Councils doing things wrong.
3. The law says what we can and cannot look into.
4. We cannot look into complaints about things that went on over a year ago, unless we think there are good reasons to.
5. We look at the effect the issue has on the person making the complaint. We are a free service but must use public money carefully. We will not look at a complaint if:
• Looking into it more will give the same answer.
• Looking into it will not give an answer.

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How I considered this complaint

6. We looked at the information given to us by Miss X. We looked at letters written to Miss X by the Council. We looked at our rules.

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My assessment

7. In 2021 the Council offered Miss X housing and she moved in. The Council said it had looked at the housing before she moved in and it was ok and met her needs. In 2021 Miss X said the housing was not ok. She said the housing:
• was in poor repair,
• had pests,
• had hygiene issues,
• was not safe,
• was cold.
8. Miss X did not complain to us until September 2024. This is more than a year ago. We looked to see if there were good reasons to wait 3 years to complain to us. Miss X has poor mental health. Miss X would have been dealing with a lot of issues at this time. But she did complain to us in June 2022 about something else. So she knew about us. These are not good reasons to wait 3 years. We think that Miss X could have complained to us sooner.
9. We do not think we could find out what the housing was like in 2021 because Miss X and the Council say different things about it.
10. We will not look into this late complaint.
11. In 2021 when the Council offered Miss X the housing, she had 21 days to use her right to ask the Council to check again if the housing was ok. Miss X says the Council told her about this. She did not ask the Council to check again if the housing was ok. Miss X says because of her mental health she did not know what this right meant. In 2021 she told a Council officer that the housing was not ok.
12. We think Miss X might have found using this right hard, but we think she still could have asked the Council to check again that the housing was ok.
13. Miss X wants the Council to find her new housing or make the landlord fix things. The Council's duty to find housing for Miss X stopped 3 years ago. Miss X's housing is not in the Council's area so the Council cannot make the landlord fix things. The Council in Miss X's area has some powers to do this. We cannot get what Miss X wants.

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Final decision

14. We will not look into Miss X’s complaint. The complaint is late for no good reason. We think we would not know if the housing was ok. Miss X could have used her right to ask the Council to check again if the housing was ok. We cannot get what Miss X wants from the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman