Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with Mr X’s homelessness application in 2018. The complaint is late and there are no good reasons to investigate it now.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained that the Council failed to properly process his homelessness application which he made in 2018 and failed to provide clear guidance to allow him to complete the homelessness assessment. Mr X says that as a result he was left without housing support at a critical time.

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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)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mr X.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about how the Council dealt with his homelessness application in 2018 as it is late. Mr X made his complaint to the Council in 2025. But the time for receiving complaints is from when a person is aware of their complaint. It is not from when they complain to the Council and receive its final response. Mr X was aware in 2018 that his homelessness application had not progressed and that he had been unable to complete the homelessness assessment. We are mindful of Mr X’s circumstances, but it is reasonable to expect him to have made the complaint to us before now.
7. We also consider the events of Mr X’s complaint are too old for us to be able to reach a sound, fair and meaningful decision. Mr X has provided some evidence. But it does not provide the full picture of what happened. We are unlikely to be able to reliably establish the facts and what should have happened some seven years after the events. We also could not achieve a worthwhile remedy for Mr X due to the passage of time.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman