Summary: We will not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint about the Council changing the status of Mr X’s council home from a 2-bedroom to a 3-bedroom property. This complaint was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. There is no evidence to suggest that Mr X could not have complained to us sooner. We have no jurisdiction to investigate complaints about the management of tenancies by social housing landlords.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained about the Council offering him a mutual exchange to a property in 2015 which was described as a 2-bedroom home, similar to that he was exchanging. In 2017 the Council told him that the property had always been a 3 -bedroomed home and that he was ineligible for full housing benefit due to having extra rooms above his housing needs.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. 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

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

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My assessment

6. Mr X says he has been ineligible for full housing benefit due to increased ‘bedroom tax’ since he was informed in 2017 that his home is classed as having three bedrooms not two as he was led to believe when he moved there in 2015. He says the Council advertised the property as having two bedrooms when it administered the exchange in 2015 and he should not be penalised for having a room he does not use as a bedroom. The additional bedroom is a downstairs bedroom.
7. The Council says the property was described incorrectly by the housing officer who carried out the exchange in 2015 and that it apologised to him for the error in 2017 when it discovered this.
8. We will not consider this matter now as it is seven years since Mr X was notified of the error and outside the 12-month period for receiving complaints. We have some discretion to consider older complaints but this would not apply in this case. If Mr X had complained to us earlier about the fault in administering the exchange we could not have considered it because mutual exchanges fall within the remit of the Housing Ombudsman Service. We cannot investigate complaints about tenancy management by social housing landlords.

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Final decision

9. We will not discretion to investigate this complaint about the Council changing the status of Mr X’s council home from a two-bedroom to a 3-bedroom property. This complaint was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. There is no evidence to suggest that Mr X could not have complained to us sooner. We have no jurisdiction to investigate complaints about the management of tenancies by social housing landlords.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman