Summary: We will not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint about the Council’s refusal to re-imburse a charity for accommodation which it provided to a homeless applicant. This complaint was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. There is no evidence to suggest that Miss X could not have complained to us sooner.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained about the Council’s refusal to re-imburse her charity for providing accommodation for a homeless applicant in 2023. She says they provided seven nights accommodation for the applicant while they were awaiting the outcome of a legal challenge they made to the court. This cost the charity more than £600. They made a claim against the Council but it refused to accept it had any duty to pay them for their expenses.

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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’s response.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Miss X says her charity had to provide accommodation for a homeless applicant following the Council’s decision to end her interim accommodation in April 2023. She says that the Council’s decision to remove the interim provision was wrong and her charity applied to the court for an order. The court subsequently granted an order and the Council restarted the accommodation duty.
7. Miss X says the charity does not normally provide accommodation directly but because her client was going to be street homeless during the court action they flet there was no alternative for the client. She says the cost of providing accommodation for 7 nights amounted to over £600 and her charity asked the Council to re-imburse the costs.
8. The Council told her that it had no statutory duty towards her charity and that the costs were incurred at their own expense. It considered the claim to be a private legal matter and that the charity should seek legal advice if it wished to take action to recover the charges by way of the courts.
9. This complaint relates to events from April-May 2023. The charity did not make a claim to the Council until 2024 and the Council did not consider it to be a matter for its complaints procedure because it involves a claim for financial loss, which would be a legal matter. We will not investigate a matter which the complainant was aware of more than 12 months before they complained to us. There is no evidence to suggest that Miss could not have complained to us sooner than August 2024.
10. The time for receiving complaints is from when someone became aware of the matter they wish to complain about, not when they complained to the Council or it issued its final response. We would expect someone to complain to us within a year, even if they were dissatisfied with the time the complaints procedure was taking.
11. We cannot investigate matters which have been subject to court proceedings.

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Final decision

12. We will not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint about the Council’s refusal to re-imburse a charity for accommodation which it provided to a homeless applicant. This complaint was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. There is no evidence to suggest that Miss X could not have complained to us sooner.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman