Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to register a local land charge on the complainant’s home. This is because we are unlikely to find fault in the Council’s actions.

The complaint

1. The complainant, I shall call Mr B, says the Council placed a local land charge on his home without his knowledge or consent.
2. He wants the charge removed as he believes he cannot sell his house with the charge on it.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mr B and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

Disabled facilities grants

6. A disabled facilities grant (DFG) can be used by people with a qualifying disability to make adaptions to their home to help them stay living there. They can be used to make improvements, such as level access bathrooms.
7. Councils must award a grant if the applicant meets the criteria. The works proposed must be:
• necessary and appropriate to meet the disabled person’s needs. This is usually assessed by an occupational therapist (OT);
• reasonable and practicable, depending on the age and condition of the property.
8. If the grant is more than £5,000 and the applicant owns their own home, the grant will have a condition that the money is repayable in certain circumstances. For example, if the person moves home within 10 years, except for health reasons. In such cases, the council will register a local land charge against the property so it can recover the grant money if the property is sold.

What happened

9. Mr B applied for a DFG for a lift in his home. An occupational therapist (OT) confirmed the work was necessary and appropriate to meet his family’s needs.
10. Mr B said the Council told him he did not have to contribute to the cost of the lift. But they did not explain that, as the total cost was over £5,000, a local land charge would be registered against his home.
11. The Council has provided a copy of the Disabled Facilities Grant General Consent Notification. This states:

“This General Consent gives us the legal power to place a local land charge on your property.”

And

“The charge will only be recovered if the property is disposed of within 10 years of the certified date..”

And

“Even if the property is disposed of within this 10-year period, there are situations where we may not seek to recover the charge, for example if doing so would cause you financial hardship, or if you are moving to a property more suitable for the needs of a disabled person.”

12. Mr B and his wife signed the General Consent form acknowledging the local land charge. But he says they was only given the signature page to sign and did not know about the land charge. However, above their signature on the form it states:

“I/we confirm that I/we have read and understood the information contained in the General Consent Notification.”

13. I consider it reasonable for Mr B to have queried what he was signing if he did not receive the information to which the signed consent form referred.
14. I have also considered the information available to the public on the Council’s website. This says:

“From the 1st April 2019 Trafford Council will be registering a Land Charge, against Owner occupier properties that have applied for and been awarded a Disabled Facility Grant.

If you are an owner-occupier and you receive a DFG grant for more than £5,000, we will place a land charge on the property for 10 years. This means that if you sell the property within 10 years, you would have to pay the money back to the Council, up to a maximum of £10,000. (so, for example, if the grant were for £8,000 the charge would be for £3,000; if the grant were for £15,000 the charge would for £10,000; if the grant were for £25,000 the charge would still be for £10,000).

The decision to claim back the money will depend on the reasons why you are selling the property. If you are in any doubt about how a land charge affects you, you should get independent legal advice.”

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Final decision

15. We will not investigate Mr B’s complaint because we are unlikely to find fault in the Council’s decision to place a local land change on his property for 10 years.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman