Summary: We will not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint about the Council’s assessment of Mr X’s housing and homeless applications up to 2019. This complaint which was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. There is no evidence to suggest that Mr X could not have complained to us sooner.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained about the Council’s handling of his housing and homeless applications in the period up to 2018 and also his eviction from temporary accommodation in 2020. He says he believes his applications were disposed of by the Council and that he has been forced to live in unsuitable shared accommodation as a result.

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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 cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered the information provided by the complainant and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mr X says the Council have disregarded his housing applications since 2005 and that his homeless applications were ignored. As a result, he has been living in unsuitable shared accommodation which has disrepair problems and pest infestations.
7. Mr X submitted a complaint to us in 2018 about the Council’s handling of his homeless application and that it had decided he was not in priority need. We decided that there was no fault and that it was reasonable for him to request a review of the homeless decision. He had a review and the decision upheld the view that he was non-priority homeless. He was subsequently evicted from his temporary accommodation in early 2020. Since that time, he has presented as homeless in a different council area and was re-housed as being in priority need in private accommodation in 2022.
8. Mr X says his current accommodation is unsuitable for his complex needs and applied for a review of suitability in November 2022. This involves a different council authority and is not related to this council’s decision to evict him in the past. He made a complaint to the Council about the issues prior to 2019 but it would not investigate matters which were out of time. Because these matters relate to issues prior to the 12-month period for receiving complaints we will not consider this matter now. There is no evidence to suggest that Mr X could not have complained to us sooner as he used our service in 2018.
9. We would not be able to investigate complaints about evictions carried out with a court possession order because we have no jurisdiction to investigate matters which have been subject to court proceedings.

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Final decision

10. We will not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint about the Council’s assessment of Mr X’s housing and homeless applications up to 2019. This complaint which was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. There is no evidence to suggest that Mr X could not have complained to us sooner.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman