Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of a homelessness crisis. Some of the complaint is late, and Miss Y had appeal rights that it was reasonable for her to exercise.

The complaint

1. Miss Y complained the Council wrongly repossessed her temporary accommodation in 2023, disposed of her belongings from storage and has poorly handled her resulting homelessness self-referrals.

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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).
3. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. Miss Y complained the Council wrongly repossessed her temporary accommodation in 2023.
7. Miss Y says the Council disposed of her belongings from storage after she left the temporary accommodation.
8. Miss Y appealed the Council’s decision, which resulted in a two-stage review that finished in 2024. The decision to repossess Miss Y’s temporary accommodation was upheld, explained the reasons for the decision, and told Miss Y of her right to appeal to the court within 21 days to challenge the outcome of the review.
9. We will not investigate these parts of Miss Y’s complaint. This is because the complaint is late and there is no good reason Miss Y could not have raised them sooner. Also, Miss Y was made aware of her right to appeal to the court about the Council’s decision, and it was reasonable to expect her to do this.
10. Miss Y says she made a further homelessness self-referral to the Council that was responded to later in 2024. The Council considered the information Miss Y provided but concluded that there had been no significant change in Miss Y’s circumstances so the threshold for taking a fresh application was not met. If the Council issued a formal decision with review rights, we would expect Miss X to ask for a review. Otherwise, we would expect her to make a formal complaint to the Council about the self-referral because the law says we cannot investigate unless the Council has had the chance to respond.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Miss Y’s complaint because it is late, and she can take the matter to court.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman