London Borough of Tower Hamlets (24 020 183)
Category : Housing > Homelessness
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 13 Mar 2025
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint about the Council’s provision of temporary accommodation. 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
- Miss X complained about the Council’s failure to provide her with suitable alternative temporary accommodation after it decided her accommodation was unsuitable in 2022.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council’s responses.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Miss X says the Council decided her temporary accommodation was unsuitable in 2022. She says it failed to find her satisfactory alternative accommodation from then. She says she asked for a review in 2022 under s.202 of the Housing Act 1996 but the Council failed to send a decision.
- Miss X has not provided any evidence that she submitted a review request or that she wanted to challenge the decision that her accommodation was unsuitable. These events took place in 2022 and she did not complain to us until 2025. We will not consider the complaint now as it was submitted outside the normal 12-month period for receiving complaints.
- 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.
Final decision
- We will not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint about the Council’s provision of temporary accommodation. 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.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman