Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of Ms X’s housing register application. This is because there is no evidence to suggest fault by the Council sufficient to warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains despite making the Council aware that she cannot access emails without support and that she needs communication by post, it continued to send her the annual renewal housing register application form by email each year and that she missed the opportunity to renew her application and have her application date backdated to 2010 when she first applied.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. In responding to my initial enquiries, the Council provided details of the history of Ms X’s housing register application renewal since her original application in 2010. Her current application was assessed in September 2024 with a registration date of May 2024.
6. The Council highlighted that Ms X had missed earlier years’ renewals and that she had always messaged via her client account without any apparent issues. It said its records show she only made it aware in July 2024 that she could not access emails on her own. Since being informed of this the Council has noted on her application that all communication must be by post or telephone and not email.
7. Ms X says that she told the Council numerous times prior to July 2024 that she could not access emails on her own and that she wanted communication by post. If this had been the reason for a previous late application in 2020, one would reasonably have expected Ms X to have made this clear when she messaged the Council about the application. No evidence has been provided to dispute the Council’s records that it was first informed in July 2024 and there are no grounds on which to base an investigation of the matter.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because there is no evidence to suggest fault by the Council sufficient to warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman