Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of Miss X’s son’s homeless and housing register application. She says the Council closed her son’s application without telling him. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains about the Council’s handling of her son’s homeless and housing register application. She says the Council closed her son’s application without telling him. She also says her son has reapplied, but the Council again closed his application.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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 an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. Miss X said her son, Mr A, made a housing application in 2016.
6. She said that when Mr A contacted the Council in 2022 about his housing application, he was told the application had been closed and that he would need to reapply. Mr A said the Council never told him it had closed his application.
7. In response to Mr A’s complaint, the Council explained it had no record of Mr A making any housing or homeless application to the Council in 2016. The Council noted Mr A first made a housing application to join the Council’s housing register in June 2021. However, as Mr A failed to supply the requested documents, his application was automatically closed after 28 days, and an email was sent to Mr A notifying him of this.
8. Mr X then made another application in August 2022. For this application, Mr A uploaded some documents, but not all the required documents. Again, as Mr A failed to supply all the requested documents, his application was automatically closed after 28 days.
9. In September 2022, Mr A made a homeless application. The Council asked Mr A to provide some documentation. However, Mr A failed to provide the requested information and so the Council closed his case at the end of September 2022.
10. In November 2022, Mr A visited the Council’s offices to discuss his application. He was advised by a case officer that it was unlikely any accommodation would be provided due to Mr A not being in priority need. The Council said Mr A told it he did not wish to proceed with his homeless application, but instead would pursue his housing application to join the Council’s housing register. The Council said Mr A confirmed this again in March 2023.
11. I asked Miss X if Mr A could provide any evidence to show he had made a housing application in 2016. Miss X provided a screenshot which she said was of Mr A’s application in 2016. However, this screenshot was undated and so I cannot say that this shows Mr A had made an application in 2016. On balance, I am satisfied Mr A did not make a housing application in 2016 and that his first application was in 2021.
12. Therefore, an investigation is not justified as we are unlikely to find fault with the Council. This is because there was no housing application in 2016 and because the Council did notify Mr A of the closure of his housing applications in 2021 and 2022. Further, the evidence available suggests Mr A told the Council he did not want to pursue his homeless application.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman