The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint about the Councils discharge of its homelessness duty and provision of temporary accommodation from 2022. This complaint was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. There is no evidence to suggest that Ms X could not have complained to us sooner. We cannot investigate matters which have been subject to court proceedings.
The complaint
Ms X complained about the Council providing unsuitable temporary accommodation in 2022. She also says it has refused to pay for her storage of possessions in a rented unit since 2022 which resulted in her paying out £4,000. She says the Council’s decision that she was intentionally homeless and the review under s.202 of the Housing Act 1996 were unreasonable. She says the outcome has resulted in the Council obtaining a possession order for her temporary accommodation. She also complained about the discriminatory and unreasonable approach of all the staff who dealt with her application and her complaints.
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 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) We cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered the information provided by the complainant and the Council’s response.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Ms X was accepted by the Council as being threatened with homelessness and placed her in temporary accommodation in 2022. In November 2022 the Council decided that Ms X was intentionally homeless. She was advised of her rights to a review and an appeal to the courts. Ms X asked for a review of the decision and in 2023 she was informed that the review did not change the original decision. Ms X was represented by solicitors but did not appeal the decision to the court.
Ms X remained in the temporary accommodation and in June 2024 the Council obtained a possession order from the County Court to re-possess the accommodation.
We will not consider the Council’s decisions on her case from 2022 which is outside the normal 12-month period for receiving complaints. The time for receiving complaints is from when someone became aware of the matter they wish to complain about, not when they complained to the Council or it issued its final response. We would expect someone to complain to us within a year, even if they were dissatisfied with the time the complaints procedure was taking.
We have some discretion to consider older complaints but in this case this would not apply because it was reasonable for Ms X to challenge the decisions by the Council by way of review and appeal to the courts.
Ms X also complained about high costs of storing her possessions from 2022 in a private storage facility. She wanted the Council to pay for this through a discretionary housing payment but this was refused. The Council says that it could have stored her possessions at a reasonable charge but she did not want it to do so. It is clear that she complained to the Council about the costs of storage she had incurred in January 2023 which is also outside the12-month timescale for consideration.
Ms X says all the housing officers involved with her case have shown discriminatory and unreasonable approaches. The Council says there is no evidence of this and that Ms X’s behaviour to its staff has been unreasonable on occasions. We cannot corroborate what was said on several occasions without clear evidence and there is no indication that any of these issues had relevance to the decisions made about Ms X’s homeless application decisions.
We cannot investigate her concerns about being served with a possession order for the accommodation she is occupying. The Council has obtained an order form the County Court and we have no jurisdiction to investigate matters which have been subject to court proceedings.
Final decision
We will not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint about the Councils discharge of its homelessness duty and provision of temporary accommodation from 2022. This complaint was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. There is no evidence to suggest that Ms X could not have complained to us sooner. We cannot investigate matters which have been subject to court proceedings.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman