The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about an alleged failure by the Council to provide the complainant assistance in retrieving her lost personal belongings, or in securing her permanent social housing. This is because the complaint is late and there are no good reasons to exercise our general discretion.
The complaint
The complainant (Mrs X) resides in temporary accommodation provided by Council. She is making a complaint about personal belongings which were lost in previous Council accommodation provided to her. She says the Council has not assisted her in retrieving these belongings since 2022. Mrs X also complains about a lack of support in assisting her move into permanent accommodation.
In summary, Mrs X says the loss of her belongings and lack of housing assistance from the Council has seriously impacted her health and wellbeing. As a desired outcome, Mrs X wants the Council to be held accountable and to provide her with the support she is entitled to. She also wants the Council to provide compensation to her on account of the alleged failings.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
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 investigate if we decide we could not add to the previous investigation by the organisation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B)).
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).
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council. I also considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The legal restriction I outline at Paragraph four (above) inserts a time limit for a member of the public to bring their complaint to the attention of the Ombudsman. Its intention is two-fold: to provide us with the best opportunity of arriving at a robust, evidence-based decision on complaints about recent events and to ensure fairness by enabling us to decline an investigation into historic matters, which could and should have formed the basis of a complaint to us far sooner.
The complaint, in part, concerns the loss of Mrs X’s personal belongings in 2022 and the Council’s assistance in helping her retrieve these. The Council has considered this matter previously and provided formal written responses to her in both October 2022 and February 2023. Mrs X, 14 months after the Council’s last response, has subsequently brought her complaint to the Ombudsman. The Council, as part of its previous consideration of the matter, provided advice to Mrs X in respect of her lost belongings. It also informed her of her right to bring the complaint to the Ombudsman at the time of its response. The complaint is late and there are no good reasons why the complaint could not have been made to us sooner, or why we should exercise our discretion and investigate now.
I have also considered Mrs X’s dissatisfaction with the assistance provided by the Council in securing permanent accommodation. The Council again considered these concerns in its final and most recent complaint response to Mrs X. It said the reason Mrs X could not bid for properties was due to rent arrears and the absence of a repayment plan. The Council told her then that if she set up a repayment plan, she would be able to bid for properties on the Council’s housing register. Mrs X’s complaint to us, again 14 months later, does not provide any new information which casts doubt ion the Council’s previous consideration of this issue. The complaint is late and I see no good reason to exercise discretion and investigate, particularly as we cannot add to what the Council has told Mrs X previously. If there has been a new issue since then, this will need to be the subject matter of a new complaint to the Council before in the first instance.
Final decision
We will not investigate this complaint because it is late and there are no good reasons to exercise our general discretion and investigate now.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman