Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about a delay in assessing his homelessness application in 2021-2 because it is late and there are no good reasons to investigate now. The Council accepts the effective date on his housing application was incorrect for a period but its audit shows he did not miss an offer of housing as a result. This did not cause sufficient injustice to justify further investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained about a delay in assessing his homelessness application in 2021-2. He says that, as a result of that delay, the effective date on his housing register application is later than it should have been, which will delay him getting an offer of social housing.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. 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

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

What happened

6. Mr X says he made a homelessness application in December 2021, but the Council did not carry out an assessment until August 2022. At that point, it accepted a prevention duty, which ended after 56 days in December 2022.
7. Mr X also made a housing register application. The Council awarded band A in November 2022, effective from August 2022, which was the date it accepted a homelessness duty.
8. Subsequently, the Council changed the effective date to 31 December 2024. This was due to officer error when extending his priority. This was corrected in September 2025 when the effective date was put back to 24 August 2022. In a complaint response in September 2025, the Council explained the effective date was the date it accepted a homelessness duty.
9. The Council has carried out an audit, which shows Mr X did not miss out on an offer of housing during the period when the effective date was incorrect.

My assessment

10. We usually expect people to complain to us within 12 months of the date of the events complained about. Mr X complained to us in October 2025 about events from 2021. There is no evidence he could not have complained earlier and no good reason for deciding to investigate now. Therefore, we will not investigate events prior to October 2024, a year before Mr X complained to us.
11. The Council accepts it altered Mr X’s effective date in error, which it has since corrected. I am satisfied Mr X did not miss out on an offer of housing as a result of this error. There is therefore insufficient injustice to justify further investigation.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about his homelessness application because it is late and there are no good reasons to investigate now. The Council accepts the effective date on his housing register application was incorrect for a time but this did not cause sufficient injustice to justify further investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman