The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s actions on Mr X’s homelessness and his housing register application. Part of the complaint is late. Mr X could have used his review and appeal rights on the closure of his homelessness application. There is not enough evidence of fault on other points.
The complaint
Mrs Y complains on behalf of her son, Mr X, that the Council: Told them when they were living together and were threatened with homelessness that they could each get a one-bedroom property. Mrs Y says they therefore applied separately for housing, but after the Council offered Mrs Y a property, it said Mr X would only be entitled to a room in a shared house, not his own property.
Has ignored Mr X’s medical conditions, which Mrs Y argues mean he should have his own accommodation, not shared accommodation.
Mrs Y says this has resulted in Mr X being homeless and has caused stress.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate. 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) 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) The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide: there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and copy correspondence and some further information the Council supplied.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr X and his mother say when they were threatened with homelessness the Council first told them they could each get one-bedroom social housing through the housing register, but later said Mr X could not get a one-bedroom property, only shared accommodation. Mr X knew about this perhaps in mid-2020, and anyway by January 2021 when a letter from the Council said it was not persuaded he could not live in shared accommodation. The Council repeated its position more recently, but the key point here is Mr X knew about the Council’s position by January 2021. He did not complain to us until June 2022. Therefore the restriction in paragraph 2 applies to this point. I realise Mr X has some mental health problems. However, I do not consider there are strong enough reasons to accept the complaint late.
In late 2021 Mr X contacted the Council again saying he had been living with his mother since the landlord took back his previous accommodation, but his mother wanted him to leave. The Council told Mr X he was only entitled to benefit that would pay towards a room in a shared property, not a property of his own. The Council then closed the matter, it says because Mr X had told it he would remain living with his mother. The Council’s letter explaining this told Mr X how to seek a review of this decision. If Mr X had done that, and still disagreed with the Council’s review decision, he would have had the right to appeal to the county court on a point of law. (Housing Act 1996, section 204) So the restriction in paragraph 3 above applies to any dispute about this decision. We normally expect people to use these review and appeal rights as the law expressly provides that route to deal with these matters. Advice, including legal advice, is available from housing agencies, advice agencies, solicitors and law centres. So if Mr X was dissatisfied with the Council’s reasons for closing his homelessness case in February 2022, he could reasonably have used his review and appeal rights.
Mr X also knew in December 2020 and January 2021 the Council had decided not to give any medical priority to his housing application. Therefore the same restriction in paragraph 3 applies here. Again, I do not see good reason to accept this complaint late.
More recently, Mrs Y and Mr X told the Council Mr X had suspected diabetes. The Council did not change its position about medical priority as it said it could only consider confirmed medical diagnoses. I do not fault that. If Mr X or Mrs Y have given the Council more medical information since then, that would be a new matter, not part of the complaint that went through the Council’s complaint procedure and came to the Ombudsman.
In May 2022, the Council said it could not consider whether to make further changes to Mr X’s housing register application unless he (or his mother on his behalf) completed the correct forms about changed circumstances. I see no fault there. Mrs Y is unhappy Mr Y can no longer bid for properties on the housing register, but that is because the Council needs the required information about the current circumstances.
Also in May 2022, the Council told Mr X how to apply again for homelessness help as he said he was homeless. Mr X can give the Council all the information he has now about his circumstances. The Council would then have to take account of that. If the Council then makes a decision Mr X is dissatisfied with, including if it offers him a property he considered unsuitable, he could ask the Council to review its decision and, if he remained dissatisfied, he could appeal to the county court on a point of law. The Ombudsman cannot achieve more on this point currently.
Final decision
We will not investigate the complaint because: part of it is out of time; it would have been reasonable to use Mr X’s review and appeal rights against the Council’s homelessness decision; there is no fault in the Council’s recent actions regarding Mr X’s housing register application; and Mr X can seek help with his recent homelessness if he wishes.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman