Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the care the complainant’s mother received and Council’s failure to disregard a property share in the assessment of care fees. The complaint is late and there are no good reasons to investigate it now. It would also be proper for the issues raised to be considered in a court of law.

The complaint

1. Ms X, who is complaining on behalf of her mother who died in 2016, says:
• Her mother received a poor standard of care which she does not agree she should pay for;
• the Council has refused to disregard the property she shared with her parents when assessing payment of care fees;
• the Council is demanding £96,000 in care fees when it provided poor care; and
• the Council only provided her with her mother’s care bill in 2021 when she informed it of her mother’s death in 2016.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. 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/care provider has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
4. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the Ms X and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Ms X says she moved into a property with her parents in 2004. She says she owned a third of the property, was on the title deeds and paid part of the mortgage. In 2012 her mother went into care, but she says the care her mother received until her death in 2016 was poor.
8. The Council says it provided Ms X with her mother’s invoices between 2012 and 2016. It also says the invoice Ms X received this year was an adjusted invoice meant to take into account the Continuing Health Care funding Ms X’s mother retrospectively received from August 2015 to October 2016. The Council says whilst Ms X never agreed to a deferred payment, it will not disregard the property partially owned by Ms X’s mother. It has also said a safeguarding enquiry was made but it did not find anything of concern regarding the care Ms X’s mother received.
9. The issues Ms X is complaining about occurred between 2012 and 2016. In an email on 20 November 2016 to the Council she complained about both the care her mother received and disputed the Council’s recovery of a large debt for her mother’s care fees. It is therefore clear Ms X has known about the matters in her complaint since at least 2016.
10. Therefore, Ms X’s complaint is late and there is no reason Ms X could not have complained to us sooner.
11. In any event, even if the complaint was not late the issues raised involve the legal liability of Ms X’s mother’s estate for the care charges. Therefore, it would be more appropriate for these issues to be decided in a court of law.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because it late and there are no good reasons to investigate it now.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman