Summary: We will not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to provide Miss X with secure, affordable accommodation since she first applied as homeless in 2017. This complaint was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. There is no evidence to suggest that Miss X could not have complained to us sooner.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained about the Council not allowing her onto the housing register and failing to provide her with secure accommodation when she applied as homeless in 2017, 2019 and 2021. She says she had to find her own accommodation and is now ineligible for the housing register because she lives outside the Council’s area in private accommodation.

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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. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in the decision making, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Miss presented herself as homeless in 2017 because of overcrowding in her parental home. The Council gave her advice about securing private rented accommodation and she found a rental property. The Council ended its homeless duty as a result. In 2019 Miss X again presented as homeless because of disrepair at her rented home and the unlikely prospect of renewal of the tenancy. The Council again gave her advice on renting and said it may provide temporary accommodation should she lose her home. Miss X again found her own accommodation, this time in another borough.
7. Miss X approached the Council as being threatened with homelessness in 2021. The Council accepted the prevention duty and subsequently she found rented accommodation with rental assistance from the Council, again in another borough.
8. In 2022 Miss X complained that she had never been rehoused in secure accommodation when she was faced with homelessness and that she was ineligible to go on the housing register because she had been able to find private rented accommodation on her own. The Council told her that it has a duty to prevent homelessness and to find suitable accommodation when it is unable to do so. There is no guarantee that permanent secure housing will be available and most applicants are housed in temporary accommodation in the private sector.
9. We will not exercise discretion to investigate Miss X’s complaint about her homeless applications which was received outside the normal 12-month period for complaints. There is no evidence to suggest that Miss X could not have complained to us sooner.
10. With regard to the Council’s refusal to allow Miss X onto the housing register at present there is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation. Miss X’s housing circumstances do not meet the requirements of the Council’s allocations policy to be accepted on the register.

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Final decision

11. We will not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to provide Miss X with secure, affordable accommodation since she first applied as homeless in 2017. This complaint was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. There is no evidence to suggest that Miss X could not have complained to us sooner.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman