Summary: Miss X complained about being placed in temporary accommodation for ten years without being made an offer of permanent housing. The Ombudsman should not exercise his discretion to investigate this complaint. This is because it concerns matters outside the normal 12-month period for receiving complaints and it was reasonable for her to challenge the Council’s duty to offer her permanent accommodation in 2017.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Miss X, complained about being in temporary accommodation for over ten years without receiving permanent accommodation. She says this makes it difficult for her and her mother who lives with her to obtain the security which they need.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I have considered all the information which Miss X submitted with her complaint. Miss X has commented on a copy of my draft decision.

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What I found

5. Miss says she has been in temporary accommodation and bidding on properties since the Council accepted its full housing duty for her as a homeless person. She has been in band B as homeless in temporary accommodation since 2016 after she says the Council accepted her as homeless in 2008. She complained to the Council in 2017 because she has not been offered permanent accommodation. In 2019 she made a further complaint.
6. The Council says her current accommodation is suitable for her needs. Whilst she can bid on vacant council properties, there is no duty for the council to find her permanent accommodation within a certain timescale. Because of a shortage of social housing vacancies, the Council says it may be many years before people in temporary accommodation may be permanently rehoused and it may not be in social housing. Miss X argues that she considers that she should be offered permanent social housing because she was homeless before the homeless legislation changed in 2012 removing the social housing requirement.
7. Miss X was aware of her housing situation more than 12-months before she submitted her complaint to the Ombudsman. She engaged solicitors who challenged the Council’s decisions as long ago as 2017. We will not exercise discretion to consider it now because she could have challenged the matter in the courts as her solicitors advised they could in 2017.

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Final decision

8. The Ombudsman should not exercise his discretion to investigate this complaint. This is because it concerns matters outside the normal 12-month period for receiving complaints and it was reasonable for her to challenge the Council’s duty to offer her permanent accommodation in 2017.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman