Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to close Mr X’s housing register application. There is insufficient evidence of fault and injustice to justify an investigation of his complaint.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained that the Council wrongly withdrew an offer of a property and closed his housing register application. Mr X says that as a result he missed offers of permanent accommodation.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. 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 any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (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 Mr X and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mr X was on the Council’s housing register and successfully bid for a property. The Council carried out verification checks before offering the property to him. Its checks identified that Mr X had not lived in the Council’s area for five continuous years so he did not meet the local connection criteria. The Council closed Mr X’s housing register application.
7. Mr X requested a review of the decision to close his application. The Council considered Mr X’s review request but did not change its decision to close his application.
8. We are not an appeal body so we do not come to our own view on whether Mr X meets the Council’s local connection criteria. Our role is to consider if the Council has followed the proper processes when making its decision.
9. The Council’s review decision letter shows it considered the relevant evidence and provided a reasoned explanation for why it considered Mr X did not meet the local connection criteria. So, there is insufficient evidence of fault to justify an investigation into his complaint.
10. The Council took approximately six months to consider Mr X’s review request. But, there is insufficient evidence of significant injustice to Mr X to justify an investigation into the time taken. This is because the Council did not change its decision to close Mr X’s housing register application. So, he did not miss any further offers of accommodation due to the time taken to deal with his review request.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint as there is insufficient evidence of fault and injustice to justify an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman