The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: Mr X says the Council did not give him enough time to consider its offer of a property. We will not investigate as Mr X has made his complaint late and there are no good reasons to investigate now.
The complaint
Mr X says the Council failed to give him enough time to consider its offer of a private sector property. He says it ended its housing ‘relief duty’ before he had a chance to get back to the Council a day after the viewing.
Mr X says he is now homeless and living in a hotel with his family. He would like the Council to review its decision.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
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 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 it would be reasonable for the person to ask for a council review or appeal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6)) 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)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant. I also asked the Council for its file documents about Mr X’s complaint and cconsidered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The Council has sent me a copy of its letter it sent to Mr X a day before the viewing outlining the consequences of Mr X refusing the property. And it sent me two file notes of officers recording Mr X’s hesitation on the day of the viewing to accept the property.
The Council says, as Mr X failed to get back to it in a ‘timely’ way, it ended its duty and advised Mr X of his rights of appeal. It also says Mr X acknowledged the Council’s email and did not appeal.
Mr X‘s complaint about what happened around the property offer is late as he has taken more than 12 months to complain to us.
There are no good reasons to exercise discretion and investigate now as, in any case, it would have been reasonable for him to ask the Council to review its decision about his homelessness if he were unhappy with the outcome. Mr X would also have had the right to appeal the Council’s homelessness decision to the county court. Therefore, we will not investigate this complaint.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it has been made late and there are no good reasons to investigate.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman