Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of her housing case and the lack of communication. The first part of the complaint will not be investigated because it was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. There is no evidence to suggest that Ms X could not have complained to the Council or us sooner. The second part of the complaint will not be investigated as there is not enough evidence of fault to warrant investigating the Council’s complaint response.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains about the Council not providing permanent housing or properly dealing with her housing case. Ms X complains that she has been ignored by the Council and went into debt due to the Council not providing emergency accommodation.

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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 provider has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating; or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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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.

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My assessment

6. Ms X and her family have been provided with homelessness support from the Council since 2019. She has been living in temporary accommodation for a significant amount of time and has also been on the Housing Needs Register since January 2019.
7. Ms X is eligible for both 3- and 4-bedroom properties and has been awarded priority band B for housing. Due to the shortage in social housing, Ms X has been living in temporary accommodation since 2019. The part of Ms X’s complaint which related to this is out of time. This complaint lies outside our jurisdiction because it is late and there are no good grounds to exercise discretion and consider it now.
8. Ms X also complains that the Council have been ignoring her and not responding to her emails. This part of the complaint relates to emails sent in 2025, so this part of the complaint is in time. The Council admitted that their response times are not adequate and apologised for this oversight. Within the stage 2 response the Council set out that if Ms X’s housing officer is unable to respond in time, someone else will respond. The Council has addressed the lack of communication and as such we will not be investigating this complaint as it is unlikely that an investigation would find any further fault in this case.

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Final decision

We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint. The first part of the complaint will not be investigated because it was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. There is no evidence to suggest that Ms X could not have complained to the Council or us sooner. The second part of the complaint will not be investigated as there is not enough evidence of fault to warrant investigating the Council’s complaint response.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman