Summary: We will not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint about the Council’s assessment of a housing application and potential homelessness in 2016. 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 failure to identify her possible homelessness and safeguarding issues for her son when she applied for housing in 2016. She says her son missed out on medical support and she has been overlooked for re-housing since then.

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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 applied to the Council’s housing register in 2016. She believes the Council should also have registered a homelessness application form her circumstances at the time but it failed to do so.
6. The Council says that her application did not contain details of potential homelessness and her reasons for applying were given as affordability and did not mention any risk of losing her home.
7. Ms X changed address in 2019 which would have required a new homelessness application even had she submitted one in 2016 because her housing circumstances changed. Ms X did not submit a homeless application until 2025 and did not complain to us about her earlier situation until June 2025.
8. We will not investigate this compalint now. It was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. There is no evidence to suggest that Mr X could not have complained to us sooner. The time for receiving complaints is from when someone became aware of the matter they wished 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.

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Final decision

9. We will not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint about the Council’s assessment of a housing application and potential homelessness in 2016. 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