Summary: We will not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint about a final offer and the discharge of the homelessness duty by the Council in 2023. This complaint was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. There is no evidence to suggest that Mr X could not have complained to us sooner.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained about the Council refusing to accept a request for a review of its final offer and discharge of duty decisions made under its homelessness duty in 2023. He says that he was offered accommodation which was unsuitable due to repairs and being outside the borough. He did not ask for a review of the 2023 decisions until 2025 and the Council told him it is too late to challenge these decisions now. He wants the Council to accept his review request and rehouse him now that he is threatened with homelessness again.

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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)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. Mr X was accepted under the homelessness Relief duty in 2022 by the Council because he had lost his previous accommodation. In June 2023 it made him a final offer of accommodation which was a private rented tenancy in a neighbouring borough. Mr X accepted the offer and moved to the tenancy.
6. In 2025 the neighbouring council obtained a prohibition order against his landlord due to problems with the state of the building. Mr X approached the Council about threatened homelessness and he also needed to update his housing application which was still current even though he did not live in the borough. The Council initially told him hr could ask for a suitability review of his current accommodation because it mistakenly believed him to be in temporary accommodation. When it found he had a tenancy and the homelessness duty had been discharged it told him he could not apply for review s because it had no duty to him under the Housing Act 1996.
7. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about refusal to consider the reviews. The decisions carried a 21-day timescale for submitting a request and if Mr X had decided his accommodation was unsuitable when he moved in he could have complained to us at the time if a review was rejected. He did not raise the matter with the Council until 2 years after he accepted the tenancy.
8. Since Mr X complained to us the Council has accepted a further relief duty responsibility for threatened homelessness from his current accommodation.

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Final decision

9. We will not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint about a final offer and the discharge of the homelessness duty by the Council in 2023. This complaint was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. There is no evidence to suggest that Mr X could not have complained to us sooner.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman