Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the handling of Miss X’s housing situation. The complaint is late without good enough reason to investigate it now.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains the Council did not deal properly with her approach for housing help between October 2021 and January 2022.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate. 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

3. I considered information provided by the complainant, including in response to my enquiries, and copy correspondence from the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. The complaint is about events from October 2021 (when Miss X contacted the Council for help with her housing) to January 2022 (when Miss X was rehoused). Miss X says the Council failed to deal properly with her, including failing to recognise that she needed housing because was fleeing domestic abuse. Miss X argues the Council failed to: take account of relevant information; do the relevant multi-agency risk assessment; and prioritise her accordingly for housing. The Council denies fault.
6. Miss X complained to the Council at the time. The Council's final complaint response on 14 March 2022 said Miss X could now complain to us. Miss X says she did not receive that response. Nonetheless, Miss X got an email from the Council on 29 March 2022 saying she could complain to us.
7. Miss X set out this complaint to us in October and early November 2023 after sending us background information about it in September 2023. Therefore the complaint to us was 21 to 24 months after the events Miss X complains of and over 18 months after the Council told Miss X she could complain to us. So the restriction in paragraph 2 applies.
8. Miss X says her delay should not be an 'excuse' for us not to investigate. It is not a question of an excuse. The law requires us to consider whether a complaint is late and, if so, whether to use our discretion to pursue it.
9. Miss X says she did not complain to us sooner due to her 'ongoing' complaint with us against another council. She says she thought complaining to us about Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council would be a 'conflict of interest,' would complicate matters unnecessarily and might compromise her other complaint.
10. There would not have been any problem for us to deal simultaneously with two complaints from the same person against different councils. We would treat each complaint on its own merits. Anyway, I have allowed that Miss X did believe it might be a problem. However, that does not persuade me we should accept this complaint now. When the Council advised Miss X about us in March 2022, we were not dealing with any other complaint from Miss X. She did not send us her complaint against the other council until December 2022. There was enough time between March and December 2022 for Miss X to have brought this complaint to us within a year of the events complained of and before she complained about the other council.
11. I am mindful Miss X had difficult experiences before her complaint to the Council. However, she was able to complain to two councils, pursue other matters and complain to us in late 2022 about the other council.
12. I am aware Miss X also had other concerns after March 2022 as she was complaining to the other council and dealing with matters related to her new home. However, Miss X only had to tell us in broad terms what her complaint was. I am not persuaded that Miss X devoting time to other matters before bringing this complaint to us justifies us investigating the present complaint so long after the events.
13. Miss X says she wants her complaint to us to result in: a detailed investigation of whether Council staff give housing/homelessness applicants the correct advice; an apology; and improvements to staff training. The Council's staff and practices, and the law and government guidance, naturally change over time. So investigating whether staff give correct advice now would not necessarily show whether that happened two years ago. Trying to investigate the 2021-2022 events now would not show whether the Council gives correct advice now. It would be disproportionate to try to investigate events around two years old with a view to recommending training because staffing, practices and training are likely to have changed over time anyway. So, even if we were to uphold this complaint, it would not follow that we would recommend what Miss X wants.
14. That leaves the apology Miss X seeks. I understand Miss X's position, but it would be a disproportionate use of the Ombudsman's time and public money to try to investigate events so long ago to perhaps achieve an apology. The passage of time might well also make it harder to reach a clear enough view now about what actually happened, and should have happened, at the relevant time.
15. Overall, there is not good enough reason to investigate this late complaint now. This is because Miss X could reasonably have complained to us about this much sooner. It is also because it is unlikely we could now achieve anything proportionate and in line with the result Miss X would like.

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Final decision

16. We will not investigate Miss X's complaint because it is late without good enough reason to investigate it now.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman