Summary: We will not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint about the Council’s refusal to accept that Mr X’s current tenancy agreement resulted from when he was placed in temporary accommodation under its homelessness duty in 2016. 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. We cannot determine the status of tenancy agreements which are legal agreements between a tenant and their landlord.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained about the Council’s refusal to accept that it provided his current tenancy as temporary under its homelessness duty in 2016. He says that he was nominated to a charitable housing association and that the Council retains the homelessness duty towards him. He wants the Council to acknowledge this and to re-instate his homeless status.

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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/care provider has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
3. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. Mr X says the Council is refusing to accept that he was housed in temporary accommodation in 2016 under its homelessness duty. He says the Council should accept that he is in temporary accommodation and that his homeless status should be re-instated.
7. The Council says that he was nominated to be housed by a charitable housing association in 2016 under a rough sleepers initiative which has been since superseded by more recent schemes. It has no record of him having a homelessness application before or in 2016 and says the tenancy is an assured shorthold tenancy which it is not involved with. It has a record of a homelessness application in 2023 which was closed at the time due to insufficient information from the applicant. Mr X made no complaint to us at the time.
8. Mr X has a current housing application but he is not awarded points as a homeless applicant. We will not investigate this compalint about matters in 2016 which is outside the normal 12-month period for receiving complaints. Mr X has made previous complaints to us and it was reasonable for him to complaint about his homelessness status at the time if he was uncertain about his housing status.
9. 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.
10. We cannot determine ethe status of Mr X’s tenancy as this is a legal agreement between a tenant and their landlord. If he wishes to find out more detail of his current housing status he would need to legal seek advice about his tenancy agreement.

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Final decision

11. We will not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint about the Council’s refusal to accept that Mr X’s current tenancy agreement resulted from when he was placed in temporary accommodation under its homelessness duty in 2016. 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. We cannot determine the status of tenancy agreements which are legal agreements between a tenant and their landlord.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman