The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that the Council has refused to award band B priority on the housing register from 2013. This is because it is a late complaint and because we have already considered at least part of the complaint.
The complaint
The complainant, whom I refer to as Mrs X, complains the Council will not backdate band B priority on the housing register to 2013. Ms X says the Council should award band B from 2013.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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) It is our decision whether to start, and when to end an investigation into something the law allows us to investigate. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mrs X and the decision we made about a similar complaint in 2021. I also considered our Assessment Code.
My assessment
In 2021 the Council identified it had made an error and, to rectify the error, it awarded band B from 2017. It notified Mrs X of the correction in 2021. We considered a complaint from Mrs X in 2021 and decided we would not start an investigation because the delay in awarding band B had not caused an injustice.
In her current complaint to us Mrs X complains the Council will not backdate band B from 2017 to 2013 which is when she moved into the property. The Council had first awarded band B in 2019, from 2019, and this, as stated above, was then backdated to 2017 in 2021.
I will not start an investigation because this is a late complaint. The Council awarded band B in 2019 and Mrs X could have complained to us then if she thought the start date was wrong. The Council backdated band B to 2017 in 2021 but Mrs X has not raised it with us until 2024. I have not seen any good reason to accept a late complaint especially as Mrs X could have raised this as part of her complaint to us in 2021.
Alternatively, it is possible Mrs X did raise this with us in 2021 but, due to our data protection policy, we no longer have full details of her complaint. But, if the issue of backdating to 2013 did form part of her 2021 complaint then we will not revisit it.
Final decision
We will not start an investigation because this is a late complaint and because we may have considered it as part of the previous complaint.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman