Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s assessment of her housing application. This complaint was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. There is no evidence to suggest Mis X could not have complained to us sooner.

The complaint

1. In short, Miss X complains the Councill failed to assess her housing application properly from 2019 and instead have dated it from her reassessment in 2021. Miss X complains that this reduces her priority for rehousing on the Council’s Housing Register.

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

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My assessment

5. Every local housing authority must publish an allocations scheme that sets out how it priorities applicants, and its procedures for allocating housing. All allocations must be made in strict accordance with the published scheme. (Housing Act 1996, section 166A(1) & (14))
6. Miss X is a Council tenant living in a two-bedroom property with her family in need of a larger property.
7. Miss X complains the Council failed to accept her 2019 housing register application. And that it promised to backdate her housing application but based it on her reapplication of 2021.
8. The Council answered Miss X’s complaint in 2023 to say - while it accepted it had delayed in assessing her application of 2019 - it had acted to remedy its error by reassessing her case in 2021 as eligible for band 3 overcrowding status as she was short of one bedroom. And that this was the correct date for her housing application as she did not qualify to be accepted from 2019 due to the allocation policy criteria in operation at the time.
9. We will not investigate. This is because we expect complainants to raise their complaints to the Ombudsman within 12 months of becoming aware of their complaint.
10. Miss X’s complaint about what happened to her 2019 housing application is caught by the time bar on the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction. And I have seen no good reasons to indicate Miss X could not have complained earlier than she has.

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Final decision

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

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman