Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint the Council wrongly said he was intentionally homeless. That is because it is a late complaint.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council wrongly decided he was intentionally homeless. He said that decision left him street homeless and negatively affected his mental health. He said he had moved to another area, which had accepted he was homeless and provided temporary accommodation.
2. Mr X said the Council’s ‘intentionally homeless’ decision, also affected his housing register priority. He wants it to apologise and financially compensate him for the distress caused.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. 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)
5. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
6. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
7. 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.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

8. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
9. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint the Council’s wrongly decided he was intentionally homeless. The Council made that decision in May 2023. Mr X did not complain to the Ombudsman until October 2024. We expect a person to complain to us within 12 months of knowing about a matter. Therefore, this complaint is late, and we should not investigate.
11. In any event, even if the complaint was not late, we would not investigate. The Council’s decision that Mr X was intentionally homeless carried a right of review. If the review found in the Council’s favour, Mr X had the right to appeal to the county court on a point of law. It was reasonable for Mr X to exercise his review and appeal rights if he disagreed with the Council’s decision.
12. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint the Council removed him from the housing register. This complaint is also late, as the Council made that decision in May 2023.
13. Following a further application, the Council accepted Mr X onto the housing register in January 2024. It awarded him Band B priority. It made that decision in line with its housing allocation policy based on Mr X being intentionally homeless. Mr X asked for a review of that decision; however, the Council did not find in his favour.
14. Although Mr X is not happy with hat decision, we will not investigate. The Council considered the information he provided. It made its banding decision in-line with its housing allocations policy. There is not enough evidence of fault in how it made that decision to justify our involvement.

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Final decision

15. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is late.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman