The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint about the Council cancelling a housing application in 2013. This complaint was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. There is no evidence to suggest that Mrs X could not have complained to us sooner.
The complaint
Mrs X complained about the Council’s cancellation of her housing application in 2013. She says the application should be backdated to this time and she should be given a higher banding for the Council’s failure.
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)
How I considered this complaint
I considered the information provided by the complainant and the Council’s response. I have also considered the Council’s current and previous housing allocations policy.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mrs X says her housing transfer application, which she submitted in 2009 after being rehoused in 2007, was closed by the Council in 2013 without her knowledge. The Council says all applicants are required to re-register annually and in 2013 applicants who had not re-registered were advised that their cases would be closed if they did not do so. It says Mrs X did not re-register and consequently her application was closed. The Council’s housing allocations policy of 2013 and the current one still require annual re-registration.
Mrs X says she was unaware of the reminder and that she did not find out she was no longer on the list until 2023. She asked the Council to backdate her application to 2013 but it will not do so. The onus is on the applicant to ensure they keep their application current. There is no evidence that Mrs X pursued the Council about her application in the ten years following its closure, although she says she tried to make contact.
We will not investigate this complaint about actions by the Council over ten years ago. It was reasonable for Mrs X to check on her application in the years following 2013 and she could have made a complaint about the closure within 12 months to the Council or to us if she did not receive a satisfactory response.
Final decision
We will not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint about the Council cancelling a housing application in 2013. This complaint was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. There is no evidence to suggest that Mrs X could not have complained to us sooner.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman