Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision on Mrs X’s homelessness application. It was reasonable for Mrs X to appeal to the County Court against this decision.

The complaint

1. Mrs X says that the Council decided wrongly that she was intentionally homeless. She says that the Council did not do a proper investigation of the homelessness application, the reasons for homelessness and her family’s priority need.

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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. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

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

My assessment

6. Mrs X applied to the Council as homeless and the Council decided that she was intentionally homeless. Mrs X then requested a review of the Council’s decision. The Council’s review decided that Mrs X was intentionally homeless. The Council’s review decision letter told Mrs X that she could appeal to the county court on a point of law within 21 days.
7. Mrs X has said that the Council did not properly apply the legal test for deciding whether she was intentionally homeless. This is a point of law and Mrs X had a right of appeal to the county court. The law expressly provides this route for challenging such decisions, so we normally expect people to use it. The court can make a binding decision and overturn the Council’s decision if it sees fit, unlike the Ombudsman. There might be a potential cost to court action, but that is not in itself automatically a reason to consider court action unreasonable, and applicants can get help with court costs if they are eligible. For these reasons, I consider that it would have been reasonable to expect Mrs X to appeal to the county court if she was unhappy with the Council’s decision.

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Final Decision

8. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because it was reasonable for Mrs X to appeal to the County Court.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman