Summary: Mr X complains that the Council has housed him and his family in unsuitable temporary accommodation and made an offer of unsuitable private rented accommodation. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint because it was reasonable for Mr X to request a review of the decisions (which would then allow him to appeal to the courts). Further, part of the complaint is out of time.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains that the Council accommodated him and his family in unsuitable temporary accommodation.
2. Mr X also complains that the Council has discharged its duty to house him because he refused an offer of accommodation that was also unsuitable.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe it was reasonable for the person to ask for a council review or appeal.(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
4. 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)
5. 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

6. I considered the complaint made by Mr X and the documents provided by the Council. I have written to Mr X with my draft decision and given him an opportunity to comment.

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What I found

7. In December 2017, the Council accepted a duty to accommodate Mr X and his family. The Council wrote to Mr X explaining the circumstances in which the Council could discharge its duty.
8. The Council placed Mr X and his family in temporary accommodation. Mr X says that this accommodation was unsuitable.
9. In June 2019, the Council wrote to Mr X to make an offer of private rented accommodation to discharge its duty. Mr X says he refused the offer of accommodation because it was unsuitable. The offer letter explained that Mr X had a right to request a review of the suitability of the offer within 21 days.
10. The Council has now given Mr X notice to leave the temporary accommodation because it has discharged its duty to house him because he refused a suitable offer of private rented accommodation.
11. It was reasonable for Mr X to exercise his right to a review of the suitability of temporary accommodation and the suitability of the offer of private rented accommodation. Mr X says he told the Council the temporary accommodation was not suitable, which it could have treated as a request for review. Mr X did not then complain to the Ombudsman for 16 months. Therefore, in any event this part of his complaint is late, and there is not a good reason he did not complain sooner.
12. If he remained dissatisfied with the review outcome, Mr X would then have had a right of appeal in county court. Therefore, the Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman