Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the way the Council dealt with an application for Discretionary Housing Payments and the way it recovered arrears. There is not enough evidence of fault to justify our involvement, and we cannot investigate the Council when it is acting as a landlord.

The complaint

1. Mr C says the Council:

• took recovery action for Council tax arrears despite saying it would not do so;
• failed to provide him with the assessment criteria for Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) and denied him the payments; and
• used a welfare call as a guise for harassing behaviour and further rent arrears recovery activity and failed to carry out repairs.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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))
3. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
4. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

7. Mr C says the way the Council treated him was a cover up for harassing behaviour and was discriminatory.

Council Tax

8. The Council says it wrote to Mr C about resuming recoveries of Council tax. It also says it has now cancelled the summons and the related costs and given
   Mr C a discretionary hardship award. A council is entitled to take recovery action for unpaid council tax, so it was not at fault. In any event, the Council has cancelled his arrears and Mr C does not have to pay anything now, so this part of his complaint is resolved.

Discretionary Housing Payments

9. There are no set criteria for DHPs. The scheme is discretionary and the Council must consider them individually.
10. We cannot question the Council’s decision to refuse a DHP. In this case the Council considered Mr C's application and the information with it. It decided not to award the DHP for reasons it has explained. We cannot question the Council’s decision because there is no evidence of procedural fault.

Rent arrears

11. We cannot investigate the complaint regarding the recovery of rent arrears and any failure to carry out repairs. This is because we have no power to investigate the Council when it is acting as a landlord.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mr C’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify our involvement. Moreover, we cannot investigate the Council when it is acting as a landlord.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman