Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of payments to her landlord and an agreement to repay the sums involved. The complaint is late and there are no good reasons to decide to investigate now.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains about the Council’s handling of payments to her landlord in 2023. She says she signed the agreement with the Council under duress and without being given clear information about it. As a result, she says she is now faced with a large and unexpected debt.

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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)
4. 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:

• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• there is another body better placed to consider this complaint.

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

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by Ms X.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

What happened

7. In 2023, Ms X was at risk of homelessness, following a domestic abuse incident. The Council used its Prevention Fund to make payments to the landlord to secure a tenancy for Ms X in her sole name at the rate of the local housing allowance. The payments made included a deposit and one month’s “rent in advance”, which totalled £2,800. The agreement said the Council would collect repayments of £20 per month by direct debit.
8. The Council accepts it failed to set up the direct debit, so Ms X had not been making the repayments. It issued an invoice for the full amount in September 2025, after Ms X moved to a new address, and took the first payment in October. It then agreed to suspend the payments whilst Ms X’s complaint was investigated.
9. In its complaint response, the Council acknowledged it was a difficult time for Ms X when she signed the agreement but there was no evidence that she signed it under duress nor that she lacked capacity to do so. It explained the payments were needed to secure the tenancy in Ms X’s sole name and that the landlord should have protected the deposit.

My assessment

10. We usually expect people to complain to us within 12 months of the events complained about. Ms X complained in December 2025 about an agreement signed in June 2023. There is no evidence to show Ms X could not have complained to us at the time about being put under undue pressure to sign the agreement and no good reason to decide to investigate that now. Even if we did investigate, it is unlikely this would add to the Council’s own investigation because the available evidence would be limited, given the lapse of time.
11. It is not our role to say whether Ms X is liable to repay the sum claimed as that would be a matter for the courts to determine.
12. Whilst the Council accepts there was a delay in setting up the repayments set out in the agreement, this did not cause sufficient injustice to Ms X to justify further investigation.
13. Ms X would need to address any concerns about the collection of payments under the direct debit agreement to her bank.
14. For the above reasons, we will not consider this complaint further.

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Final decision

15. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because it is late and there are no good reasons to investigate now.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman