Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s actions relating to an application to join its housing register. The complaint is late and there are no good reasons to exercise discretion to consider it now. Nor will we investigate a complaint about a data request X made. This is because the Information Commissioner’s Office is better suited to investigate such a complaint.

The complaint

1. X said they were wrongly removed from the Council’s housing register in 2015. They said it failed to acknowledge their request and closed their case without adequate justification. X said the Council also failed to respond to a subject access request, they made, in good time.
2. X said the Council’s failure has caused them long term disruption because they experienced housing instability.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

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)
4. 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 another body better placed to consider part of this complaint. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
5. We normally expect someone to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner’s Office if they have a complaint about data protection. However, we may decide to investigate if we think there are good reasons. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by the complainant and I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. X complained to the Council in 2026, about how it handled their request to join its housing register. X said they never had a follow-on response to a request they made about a review, and that they also appeared to be locked out of their online account. X sent this as a request to the Council in late 2015.
8. I will not investigate this complaint, because it is late.
9. I have considered the reasons why X said they were unable to complain to us sooner. They said they were not fully aware of the extent of the Council’s fault until recently. I find it unlikely, on balance, that they could not come to a view, much sooner, that something was amiss, when they were no longer able to bid on properties from 2015 onwards.
10. Additionally, I acknowledge X's comments about what else was happening during this time which limited their ability to raise this matter sooner. However, these are not sufficient reasons to displace the expectation in law that we will not investigate late complaints. 
11. X said in their recent contact with the Council it had not responded to a subject access request they made. I will not consider this part of X’s complaint because the Information Commissioner’s Office is better placed to look at a complaint about data protection and information rights.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate X’s complaint because it is late and there are no good reasons to explain why a complaint could not have been made sooner. Additionally, the Information Commissioner’s Office, is better placed to consider a complaint about data protection rights.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman