Summary: We will not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint about the Council’s offers of a management transfer in 2023. 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 offers of accommodation when she was approved for a management transfer in 2013. She says that she was made one offer which was unsuitable for her needs due to proximity of her former partner. She rejected this and says she was not made another offer. She wants the Council to restore her housing application to Band 1 priority backdated to 2013.

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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’s responses.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Ms X says she was accepted for a housing management transfer to another tenancy by her council landlord in 2013. The Council’s management transfer policy at the time said that two reasonable offers would be made and then the status would end. She says she was only made one offer which she turned down because of the proximity to her former partner from whom she was rehoused due to harassment and abuse.
6. Ms X made a formal compalint about the unsuitability of the offer in 2013 which was considered by the Council at Stage two of its complaints procedure. She says she was not made any further offers after 2013. She says she was not offered a review of the decision at the time. She made a new compalint about her failure to be made offers in 2024 and the Council told her that it was now too long ago to investigate what happened over ten years previously. She complained to us in 2025.
7. The legislation from which we have powers to investigate also places some restrictions on what we can consider. One of these restrictions relates to complaints about matters which the complainant was aware of more than 12 months before they brought it to our attention. This restriction applies to Ms X’s complaint. She became aware of not receiving further offers several years ago and did not complain to us within 12 months of that date.
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. After the passage of a few years it was reasonable for Ms X to make enquiries or a complaint about her lack of offers but she did not do so until 2024.

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Final decision

9. We will not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint about the Council’s offers of a management transfer in 2023. 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