Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s assessment of Miss X’s housing application since 2019. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation. We will not exercise discretion to consider events before 2024 because they are outside the normal 12-month period for receiving complaints.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained about the Council’s assessment of her housing application since 2019. She says she has been overlooked for vacancies that at she has not been told when she will be re-housed.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
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)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. Miss X says the Council has not re-housed her since she became homeless and was placed in temporary accommodation. She says it failed to nominate her to a housing association for vacancies when she asked it to do so in 2022. She also says that she was offered an unsuitable social housing property in 2022.
7. We will not investigate these aspects of the compalint. They concern matters which took place before the normal 12-month period for receiving complaints. It was reasonable for Miss X to complain to us within 12 months of the events taking place in 2022. I have seen no evidence to suggest that Miss X could not have complained to us sooner.
8. 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. Councils have a duty to provide temporary accommodation for persons accepted under homelessness legislation. There is no duty to provide social housing or a private tenancy within a specified timescale. Many councils have applicants in temporary accommodation for many years before they can be made an offer.
10. Miss X asked the Council to consider her for a direct offer for a property which she identified as being suitable for her needs. The banding she is in does not specify that she is eligible for direct offers but in this case the property was already allocated to an applicant with higher priority on the register and is currently under repair.
11. 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. I can see no evidence of fault in the housing assessment by the Council in the past 12 months which we would investigate.
12. Miss X also complained about delays in responses to her subject access requests for data on her files. We will not investigate these matters. Data access issues are best considered by the office of the Information Commissioner.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s assessment of Miss X’s housing application since 2019. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation. We will not exercise discretion to consider events before 2024 because they are outside the normal 12-month period for receiving complaints.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman