The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s decision to close his housing register application because there is insufficient evidence of fault to justify our involvement.
The complaint
Mr X complained the Council wrongly closed his housing register application and failed to review its decision to do so at stage 1 and stage 2 of its process. He said there was no reasonable basis for the Council’s decision, apart from discrimination on grounds of race.
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 start or continue an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
What happened Mr X applied to join the Council’s housing register in January 2024. On 1 May, the Council requested verification evidence. Since it had not received a response, it closed the application and wrote to Mr X with its decision.
On 5 June, Mr X asked for a review of the decision. The Council responded on 3 July 2024. It said the verification process had not been completed because Mr X had not provided the information it asked for. It also referred to a previous application in 2019, which was closed because Mr X refused to provide all the information it asked for. It explained Mr X could ask for a stage 2 review.
Mr X told us he did not receive a stage 1 review decision. He said he spoke to an officer on 2 August, who told him the original decision was upheld, but did not explain the reasons for that decision. He said he asked for a stage 2 review on 8 August but did not receive a stage 2 review decision. The Council said it had no record of receiving a stage 2 review. It provided a copy of its case notes to confirm all the actions on the application.
My assessment
It is the responsibility of the applicant to provide all relevant evidence to support their housing register application, and it is not fault for councils to close an application of applicants do not provide the evidence asked for within a reasonable timeframe.
In this case, Council records support its account of what happened, which was that it asked Mr X for evidence, which it did not receive, and also that a stage 1 review decision was issued. Mr X may not have received these communications, and the Council says it did not receive his stage 2 review request. Whilst I appreciate the apparent lack of responses was frustrating for Mr X, there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council that would warrant further investigation.
There is no evidence to suggest the Council’s decision was affected by Mr X’s race or any other protected characteristic.
It is open to Mr X to make a fresh application of he wishes to do so.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council to justify our involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman