Summary: Miss X complained the Council wrongly closed her homelessness case without telling her and refused to investigate her complaint about this. We found the Council at fault for not telling Miss X it closed her homelessness case, for its poor record-keeping and for not investigating her complaint. These faults caused injustice to Miss X. The Council has agreed to apologise, backdate the start date of her new homelessness case to the date of her original application and make a payment to recognise the distress caused to her. It has also agreed to make changes to improve its service.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained the Council wrongly closed her homelessness case and did not tell her, so she was not aware it had done this. She also said the Council refused to investigate her complaint about this because it said the complaint was late.

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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.
3. 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)
4. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused significant injustice, or that could cause injustice to others in the future we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
5. When considering complaints we make findings based on the balance of probabilities. This means that we look at the available relevant evidence and decide what was more likely to have happened.
6. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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What I have and have not investigated

7. I have investigated the period from when the Council closed Miss X’s homelessness case in August 2023 until the Council’s final complaint response to her in February 2025. I am satisfied she did not know about the Council’s decision to close her case until January 2025. Therefore, there are good reasons to investigate this late complaint, because Miss X complained to us within 12 months of becoming aware of these events.

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How I considered this complaint

8. I considered evidence provided by Miss X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
9. Miss X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

The relief duty

10. Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996 and the Homelessness Code of Guidance for Local Authorities set out councils’ powers and duties to people who are homeless or threatened with homelessness.
11. Councils must take reasonable steps to help to secure suitable accommodation for any eligible homeless person. This is known as the relief duty. When a council decides this duty has come to an end, it must notify the applicant in writing (Housing Act 1996, section 189B)
12. Homeless applicants may request a review within 21 days of being given notice the Council has decided to bring the relief duty to an end.

What happened

13. In October 2021 Miss X applied to join the Council’s housing register. She was accepted and could then bid on the Council’s properties.
14. Miss X made a homelessness application to the Council in August 2022. In September 2022 the Council accepted the relief duty towards Miss X.
15. In August 2023 the Council closed Miss X’s homelessness case. It said this was because its policy was to close cases where the applicant had not contacted the service for more than one month, which it said applied to her. It did not send her a letter to tell her it was doing this.
16. Miss X remained on the Council’s housing register and was still able to bid on properties as normal, even after the Council closed her homelessness case.
17. In January 2025 Miss X noticed her position had dropped when bidding on properties on the Council’s housing register. She contacted the Council to ask why this was and during this call she found out her homelessness case was closed in August 2023.
18. The Council advised Miss X to make a new homelessness application and she submitted this in January 2025.
19. Miss X complained to the Council in February 2025 about its decision to close her homelessness case.
20. The Council responded and told her it would not investigate her complaint. It said its policy states it would not normally investigate complaints about events that happened more than 12 months ago, and her complaint was about an issue that happened in August 2023.
21. Miss X then complained to us. As well as complaining about the Council closing her case, she also complained her case officer had changed at some point in 2023, but the Council did not tell her about this.
22. We asked the Council for some information as part of our enquiries. It told us it did not hold complete records for Miss X’s homelessness case.

Analysis

Closing the case

23. The Council did not tell Miss X it was closing her case and ending its relief duty. This was fault.
24. By not informing Miss X of its decision, it denied her the opportunity to ask the Council for a review and provide any evidence why she may have thought its decision was wrong.
25. Miss X did not become aware of the Council’s decision until January 2025. Once she found out, this caused her stress and uncertainty as she was worried her position on the Council’s housing register had dropped due to her homelessness case being closed. She was worried she may have missed out on properties if her bidding position was lower due to not having an open homelessness case.
26. However, according to the Council’s allocations policy, Miss X’s homelessness case being closed would not have caused her position on the housing register to drop. In response to our enquiries, the Council confirmed this.
27. We cannot say, even on the balance of probabilities, whether the Council’s fault to close Miss X’s homelessness case without telling her had any impact on her housing situation. This is because:
• even if Miss X had had a chance to ask for a review of the Council’s decision to close her homelessness case, we could not tell the outcome of the review;
• Miss X’s bidding position was not affected;
• we cannot say whether the Council would have given Miss X a suitable final offer of accommodation during the time her homelessness case was closed.

Record keeping

28. The Council told us it does not hold complete records for Miss X’s homelessness case. It said it was missing the outcome of her homelessness application in 2022, and it did not have a record of any decision letters it had sent her in relation to her homelessness case.
29. Failure to keep accurate records is fault by the Council. As suggested in our guidance note Principles of Good Administrative Practice keeping proper and appropriate records ensures councils are open and accountable.
30. The Council’s fault caused injustice to Miss X as we could not check the Council’s actions in her homelessness case.

Communication

31. In response to our enquiries, the Council told us Miss X’s case was not reallocated to a new officer in 2023.
32. The Council’s case notes show that Miss X’s case was updated in July 2023, but it does not show if her case was allocated to a new officer.
33. Due to the Council’s failures with record keeping, I am unable to say if it was likely Miss X’s case officer changed before it closed her case in 2023.
34. The Council told us it was experiencing staffing issues in 2023, with many of its staff being agency and on short term contracts which resulted in a period of instability within the service. It said it now has all its staff on permanent contracts and has made changes to its process to ensure applicants are informed if their case officer changes.

Complaint handling

35. The Council’s complaint policy says it will investigate complaints that have occurred within 12 months of the complainant becoming aware of the issue or the issue occurring.
36. It was fault for the Council to refuse to investigate Miss X’s complaint on the grounds the events she complained about happened more than 12 months prior. This is because the Council’s complaints policy clearly states it will usually investigate issues the complainant became aware of in the last 12 months. Miss X only became aware the Council closed her homelessness case in January 2025, therefore she could not have complained about this any earlier.
37. I have not seen any evidence the Council considered whether it should investigate Miss X’s complaint given she had only recently become aware of the issue. Therefore, the Council failed to follow its own complaint handling policy.
38. The Council’s fault in the way it dealt with Miss X’s complaint caused her injustice because she felt frustrated the Council was unwilling to listen or act to resolve her concerns.

Service improvements

39. In response to our recent decisions, the Council agreed to train relevant staff on the Council’s relief duty. Therefore, I have not made a recommendation on this point. We will be monitoring the effectiveness of the Council’s actions following our recommendations through our casework.

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Action

40. Within one month of our final decision, the Council will:

• apologise to Miss X for the injustice caused to her by the failings identified during this investigation. This apology should be in accordance with our guidance for making an effective apology.
• backdate the start date of Miss X’s current homelessness application to the same start date as her homelessness case that was closed in August 2023.
• pay Miss X £350 to acknowledge the uncertainty caused to her by the Council failing to tell her it was closing her homelessness case and for the distress caused to her by the Council’s failings when handling her complaint.

41. Within three months of our final decision, the Council will:
• through training or a staff briefing, remind staff of the need to record all key actions and decisions, including decision letters, on applicants’ case files;
• issue a briefing to remind relevant staff the Council’s complaints policy states it would consider complaints about events that happened more than 12 months ago, if the complainant only became aware of those events within the last 12 months. Therefore, complaints where the complainant only became aware of the issue in the last 12 months should be investigated as per the Council’s complaints policy.
42. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

43. I find fault causing injustice. The Council has agreed actions to remedy injustice.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman