Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a housing application. The complaint is late without good enough reason to investigate it now. It is unlikely any investigation would find fault in the Council not offering social housing up to December 2022. It is also unlikely we could reach a clear enough view now about a conversation around four years ago. Any complaint about matters after November 2022 should go through the Council’s complaint procedure first.

The complaint

1. Miss Y complains on behalf of her father Mr X that the Council has not offered Mr X social housing and that someone from the Council told her the Council was waiting for Mr X to die.

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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)
3. 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 or continue an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or further investigation would not lead to a different outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
4. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint unless we are satisfied the Council knows about the complaint and has had an opportunity to investigate and reply. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to notify the Council of the complaint and give it an opportunity to investigate and reply. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(5))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

7. Mr X and his family, who are all adults, have been in homelessness temporary accommodation for many years. Mr X can bid for four-bedroomed social housing homes on the Council’s housing register. In November 2022 Mr X complained to the Council he had not got social housing yet. Miss Y, acting for Mr X, brought that complaint to us in September 2024, nearly two years after Mr X knew he was dissatisfied. So the restriction in para 2 applies to this part of the complaint.
8. I appreciate Mr X is elderly and his health has declined since 2022. Nevertheless, he could tell us in October 2024 that he wanted to complain about the Council and wanted his daughter to represent him. Miss Y also told me the complaint was late because she had a medical condition she described as ‘…very debilitating, making it completely difficult for me to do anything.’ I note Miss Y contacted the Council on her father’s behalf in January and February 2023. Miss Y again contacted the Council 18 months later in August 2024 and came to us the following month. I accept Mr X’s and Miss Y’s health problems mean complaining might be more difficult and take longer than for people without their conditions. However, while that might explain some delay over 12 months after late 2022, I am not persuaded it is a good enough reason for taking so long to complain to us. It is also the case that, if Miss Y’s health prevented her pursuing the complaint, Mr X or Miss Y could have sought other help to complain, for example from one of the other adults in Mr X’s household or externally, such as from an advice agency. Overall, I am not persuaded there are good enough reasons to accept this late part of the complaint now.
9. Even if there were good enough reasons, there is another reason we will not investigate. The Ombudsman recognises the demand for social housing far outstrips the supply of properties in many places. The Ombudsman may not find fault with a council for failing to re-house someone, if it has prioritised applicants and allocated properties according to its published allocations scheme. The evidence suggests the Council has given Mr X’s housing application appropriate priority. Four-bedroomed social housing properties are scarce in many places, particularly inner London. It is not unusual for homeless applicants to wait many years in temporary accommodation. In February 2023 the Council told Miss Y that Mr X’s application was in 21st position for such accommodation, the Council expected then to have around six four-bedroomed properties a year, in which case it could be another three to four years before it offered Mr X a property.
10. The Council has no duty actually to give Mr X social housing in any particular timescale. Its duty here is just to let Mr X bid with appropriate priority for vacant social housing in line with the Council’s policy. The evidence suggests it had done that up to December 2022. Mr X’s lack of success until then seems to have been because demand for social housing significantly outstripped supply, not because of fault by the Council. Therefore there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to justify us starting an investigation.
11. Miss X also complains that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, in late 2020 or early 2021, someone from the Council told her the Council was waiting for her father to die and it would then deal with the housing needs of the rest of the family. Miss X and, it appears, Mr X, knew of that alleged remark then. The restriction in paragraph 2 therefore applies to this point. For the reasons given above, I am not persuaded to accept this late complaint either. Even if there were good reasons to investigate this late point now, it is anyway unlikely we could reach a clear enough view now about a conversation around four years ago.
12. The points above refer to events up to November 2022, when Mr X complained to the Council. Any complaint about events since then has not completed the Council’s complaint procedure, so the restriction in paragraph 4 applies. I see no reason to investigate events in the last two years without giving the Council the opportunity to do so. Therefore any complaint about events after November 2022 should go through the Council’s complaint procedure before the Ombudsman will consider it.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. The complaint is late without good enough reason to investigate it now. It is unlikely any investigation would find fault in the Council not offering social housing up to December 2022. It is also unlikely we could reach a clear enough view now about a conversation around four years ago. Any complaint about matters after November 2022 should go through the Council’s complaint procedure first.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman