Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about Ms X’s application for social housing. Part of the complaint is late and there is no good reason Ms X could not have complained to us sooner. It is unlikely we would find fault with the rest of the complaint.

The complaint

1. Ms Y complained on behalf of Ms X that despite agreeing Ms X and her family need to move, Ms X has remained in her property since 2019. Ms Y says the property is overcrowded and negatively affects the whole family, especially one of Ms X’s children’s who has special needs.

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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)
3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. 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, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. Ms X lives in social housing with her family. The Council offered Ms X the property in 2019 to end its homelessness duty. Ms X says the property was always unsuitable. This part of the complaint is late and the restriction in paragraph two applies. There is no good reason Ms X could not have complained to us sooner and so we will not investigate this part of the complaint.
7. Ms X is on the Council’s waiting list for a move. She was in Band 2 until January 2025, when the Council awarded Band 1 priority. This means Ms X has the highest priority for offer of a suitable property. It is unlikely we could achieve more than this if we were to investigate.
8. Ms Y complained on behalf of Ms X that despite her priority, Ms X has not moved. It is unlikely we would find fault if we investigated this complaint. There is high demand for social housing and the Council has applied its allocations policy properly.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Ms Y’s complaint because part of the complaint is late and it is unlikely we would find fault on the rest.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman