Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s assessment of a housing application. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained about the Council advising him to bid for 3-bedroom accommodation in 2022 when he submitted a bid for a 2-bedroom property. He says now that he is bidding on 3-bedroomed homes he is much further down the waiting list and it may take years to receive an offer.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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 how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), 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 the complainant and the Council. I have also considered the Council’s housing allocations scheme.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mr X says he was applying for 2-bedroom properties in 2022 when the Council advised him to apply for 3-bedrooms because he qualified for this. Since then, he has found out that although he is eligible for 3-bedrooms the demand is much higher and the time for waiting much longer due to fewer vacancies. He says the Council misinformed him in 2022 about his chances of being re-housed.
7. We will not consider the events in 2022 because it is outside the normal 12-month period for receiving complaints. The Council says that Mr X was eligible to bid on three-bedroom vacancies from 2018 when his eldest child passed the 10-year-old threshold for sharing a room. It will not advise families to bid on accommodation which is smaller than their needs because this would prolong overcrowding and not address demand to move to more suitable accommodation. It is inevitable that growing families will require larger accommodation and that the high demand for these properties which are limited in number will involve a longer wait to be rehoused.
8. The Ombudsman is not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly, we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong, regardless of whether someone disagrees with the decision the organisation made.

9. We 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

10. We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s assessment of a housing application. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman