Summary: We will not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision on a homelessness application in 2022. 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. We will not investigate Miss X’s compalint about being evicted from her temporary accommodation in 2024. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained about the Council’s decision in 2022 that she was intentionally homeless. She says that it failed to properly investigate the reasons why she was evicted for rent arrears from her previous tenancy. She says that over two years after the decision the Council decided to evict her from the temporary accommodation she had been placed in when she applied as homeless. She has been unable to find settled accommodation since then and is being housed by social services at present.

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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. 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)
4. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

7. Miss X says she was told in 2022 that her homelessness application was being closed because the Council had found that she was intentionally homeless following her eviction from a previous tenancy due to rent arrears. She asked for a review of the decision under s.202 of the Housing Act 1996 Part 7. The Council carried out the review in April 2022 and it upheld the original homelessness decision. The review letter set out Miss X’s rights to appeal the decision to the County Court and was issued to her solicitors at the time.
8. Miss X did not pursue her right of appeal and we will not consider the matter now. The time for receiving complaints is from when someone became aware of the matter they wished 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.
9. We have some discretion to consider older complaints but in this case we would have advised Miss X to use her right of appeal to the courts had she complained at the time. We cannot overturn a decision on a homelessness application.
10. Miss X was evicted in October 2024 from the temporary accommodation which the Council placed her in when she first applied in 2019. She says she obtained legal aid to challenge the Notice to Quit but her solicitors failed to pursue the case properly.
11. The Council ended its homelessness duty to Miss X in 2022. She remained in the temporary accommodation until 2024. There was no duty to provide her with accommodation following the intentional decision and the expiry of the appeal period. The Council says that she had extended time to seek alternative accommodation and it could have evicted her at any time from 2022. The eviction was carried out by court bailiffs is and is outside our jurisdiction.
12. Miss X is currently in social service accommodation provided under the Children Act and the Council has confirmed that it has not registered any new housing application from her at present.
13. The Ombudsman is not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly, we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong, regardless of whether someone disagrees with the decision the organisation made.
14. In this case the Council evicted Miss X following a legal notice and an order from the courts. There is no evidence of fault in the procedure it used.

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Final decision

15. We will not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision on a homelessness application in 2022. 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. We will not investigate Miss X’s compalint about being evicted from her temporary accommodation in 2024. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman