London Borough of Brent (25 018 461)
Category : Housing > Allocations
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 22 Jul 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about Ms X’s housing. This is because the complaint is late and Ms X should have raised a complaint to us sooner.
The complaint
- Ms X complains the Council has failed to support her with her housing over twenty years. Ms X said most recently it significantly delayed responding to her 2023 housing application and when it did respond, it failed to properly consider her housing needs.
- Ms X wants the Council to change its decision and provide her and her adult daughter with suitable, stable accommodation.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Ms X complained to the Ombudsman in November 2025 that the Council:
- significantly delayed responding to her housing application in 2023, only responding in July 2024 to say she was adequately housed;
- failed to properly consider her and her adult daughter’s housing needs, including that they were overcrowded; and
- failed to properly support her with her housing over the past twenty years.
- Ms X has complained about events that happened much more than twelve months before she complained to us. I cannot see any good reason that Ms X did not raise complaints about these issues sooner and so we will not investigate these complaints further, as they are late.
- I note from the Council’s final complaint response that it agreed to consider new medical evidence and information she provided and decide whether to review its original decision regarding her housing.
- If Ms X receives the Council’s new decision and believes it to be flawed, Ms X can approach the Ombudsman again and ask us to consider this.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because it is late, with no good reasons provided that she did not complain sooner.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman