Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint that the Council failed to deal with her applications to join their housing register. Part of the complaint is late without good enough reason to investigate it now. On the part that is not late, we have not seen enough evidence of fault to justify an investigation.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains that she has been applying to move into the Council’s area since 2020.
2. She says the Council has not responded to her applications and that she has grounds to move into their area.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate. 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/care provider has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
4. 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)
5. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by Miss X and the Council.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. Miss X complains the Council has not processed several of her previous applications to join the Council’s housing register.
9. The Council has said that Miss X submitted four ‘out of borough’ applications since 2020 which were not processed due to system errors. However, I have not seen good reason why Miss X should not reasonably have complained to us within 12 months of knowing about these matters. Therefore, the part of the complaint relating to matters occurring before 2024 is made too late.
10. I have not found any fault to warrant an investigation into the Council’s latest decision to refuse Miss X’s ‘out of borough’ application. This is because Ms X failed to provide all the information required by the Council to support her application.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s decision to exclude her from its housing register. Part of the complaint is late without good enough reason to investigate it now. There is not enough evidence of fault in how the council made the more recent decision on Miss X’s housing application.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman