Summary: Ms X complains that she has experienced three no fault evictions and she has not been offered a suitable property. As a result, Ms X is homeless, living in her car, separated from her adult children and her mental health has declined. She also complains that the Council has ended its homelessness duty towards her.

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:

The complaint

1. Summary: Ms X complains that she has experienced three no fault evictions and she has not been offered a suitable property. As a result, Ms X is homeless, living in her car, separated from her adult children and her mental health has declined. She also complains that the Council has ended its homelessness duty towards her.
   
   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))

2. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)

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)(Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. Ms X approached the Council for homelessness support. The Council provided homelessness support but decided that Ms X was not in priority need. Ms X was offered suitable accommodation on 2 May 2025 by the Council which she declined because she deemed it to be too far away from her support system. The Council subsequently discharged the duties they owed to Ms X.
6. Ms X asked for a review of the Council’s decision to end the relief duty and that Ms X is not in priority need and the Council conducted a review and upheld their original decision. Reviews of homelessness decisions carry a statutory right of appeal to the County Court under s.204 of the Housing Act 1996 Part 7.
7. Ms X also complained about the Council’s failure to assist her with 3 private-sector evictions from 2014-2023. These matters are 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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Final decision

We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of her homelessness case because there is insufficient evidence of fault in its decision making to justify our involvement. We will not investigate her complaints about three earlier no- fault evictions from 2014-2023 because these are late complaints and there is no good reason why she could not have complained about the Council’s involvement in previoius years. Ms X has exercised her statutory review rights in relation to the suitability of her temporary accommodation and these carry further rights of appeal to the County Court.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman