Summary: Miss X complained about the Council’s handling of her homeless application from 2018. She also complained about the failure to issue a final homeless decision. The Ombudsman should not exercise his discretion to investigate the matters before September 2019. This is because they took place outside the normal 12-month period for receiving complaints. There is insufficient evidence of fault causing injustice to Miss X in the Council issuing its final homeless decision.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Miss X, complains about the Council’s handling of her homeless application since 2018. She says she was treated rudely by housing officers in 2018 when she left her accommodation and removed from the homeless list for a short time in April 2019. After the Council issued a ‘minded to’ decision in January 2020 she did not receive a final decision.

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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 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 is unlikely we would find fault, or
• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• it is unlikely we could add to any previous investigation by the, or
• it would be reasonable for the person to ask for a council review or appeal.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), 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. I have also considered the Council’s response. Miss X has commented on a draft copy of my decision.

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What I found

5. Miss X left her accommodation in February 2018 and lived with friends and family until she made a homeless application to the Council. She says the Council officers who dealt with her at the time were rude to her about giving up her accommodation. In April 2019 she says she was removed from the homeless list after leaving temporary accommodation following a violent incident. She was reinstated and placed in interim accommodation following the intervention of her Member of Parliament.
6. The Ombudsman will not exercise discretion to consider these matters now because Miss X was aware of them more than 12 months before she raised a complaint with us. They are too long ago to have a bearing on her current circumstances.
7. In January 2020 the Council issued a ‘minded to’ letter saying that it was likely to decide that Miss X was intentionally homeless for giving up her last settled accommodation in 2018. Miss X had an opportunity to respond to this, but she did not hear anything further from the Council and complained to us in September.
8. Following our enquiries in October the Council confirmed that Miss X was intentionally homeless and issued a notice to her under s.184 of the Housing Act 1996. The notice gave Miss X an opportunity to seek a review of the decision within 21 days and she has done so.
9. Miss X remained in interim accommodation provided by the Council throughout this period and she has not suffered any significant injustice as a result of any delay in issuing a final decision. If the review is unsuccessful, she will be able to appeal against the decision to the County Court.

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Final decision

10. The Ombudsman should not exercise his discretion to investigate the matters before September 2019. This is because they took place outside the normal 12-month period for receiving complaints. There is insufficient evidence of fault causing injustice to Miss X in the Council issuing its final homeless decision.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman