Broxtowe Borough Council (23 016 936)
Category : Housing > Managing council tenancies
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 11 Mar 2024
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint. It is about the Council’s management of its social housing, which the law prevents us investigating.
The complaint
- Mr X complains about matters related to the Council making him leave his home.
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 complaints about the provision or management of social housing by a council acting as a registered social housing provider. (Local Government Act 1974, paragraph 5A schedule 5, as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- The Council is a registered social housing provider. The restriction in paragraph 2 above prevents us investigating complaints about matters “in connection with” the Council’s “housing activities so far as they relate to the provision or management of social housing…”
- Mr X’s complaint centres on events related to the Council’s decision that Mr X could not succeed to the Council social housing tenancy of the family home and to the Council offering tenancies of other Council properties instead. This includes: tenancy matters; the Council evicting Mr X; offers of other Council properties; an alleged failure to help Mr X, as a disabled person, to manage matters, including dealing with belongings left in the family home; liability for rent and bills in two Council properties for a period; delay providing an adaptation in Mr X’s new home and the adaptation, when done, being unsuitable.
- Those matters are all “in connection with” the Council’s actions as a social housing provider managing its social housing. Therefore the restriction in paragraph 2 prevents us investigating the complaint.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the law says we cannot do so.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman