Summary: We will not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint about the Council’s assessment of a request for rehousing. This complaint was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. There is no evidence to suggest that Ms X could not have complained to us sooner.

The complaint

1. Ms X complained about the Council’s failure to give her housing priority for a transfer in 2022 and 2023. She says her home is overcrowded and she has difficulty managing with stairs in her current home.

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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)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Ms X complained to the Council in 2022 about her current housing conditions and her request for a management transfer being delayed. The Council told her in its initial response that she had not provided sufficient information for it to make an assessment. In 2023 she escalated her complaint. The Council told her that she had withdrawn her consent for the Family Justice Centre to assist with her transfer request. Without this it told her she would not be successful in having her request considered by a Housing Panel.
6. Ms X told the Council that she wanted to be considered for a move under the allocations scheme because she needed a larger property without stairs to access it. The Council referred her to previous advice given by the re-housing team about applying for a move. Ms X does not appear to have completed an application following the Council’s final response in March 2023. In November she complained to the Housing Ombudsman Service about disrepair, a transfer and other issues her current home.
7. We will not investigate this complaint which was received outside the12-month period for receiving complaints. Although the Housing Ombudsman could not consider a complaint about housing allocations, Ms X did not raise the matter with us in the period from March to November 2023 when it was reasonable to do so.
8. The time for receiving complaints is from when someone became aware of the matter they wish to complain about, not when they complained to the Council or it issued its final response. We would expect someone to complain to us within a year, even if they were dissatisfied with the time the complaints procedure was taking.

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Final decision

9. We will not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint about the Council’s assessment of a request for rehousing. This complaint was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. There is no evidence to suggest that Ms X could not have complained to us sooner.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman