Tandridge District Council (25 004 549)
Category : Benefits and tax > Housing benefit and council tax benefit
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 01 Oct 2025
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about comments the Council made about the charity as a landlord, as there is not enough evidence of fault to warrant an investigation.
The complaint
- X is a charity which is a landlord in the Council’s area. X complains the Council made untrue and damaging statements about the charity when it rejected its tenant’s application for Housing Benefit.
- X says the Council caused the tenant to be unable to pay rent to the charity which means the charity has suffered a financial loss. It also says the Council has caused reputational damage.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We investigate 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 continue an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- The Council declined a Housing Benefit application made by the charity’s tenant.
- The charity said the Council’s explanation for not accepting the application included damaging comments about the charity.
- The Council explained the comments it made and why it did not agree with X’s view.
- If X wishes to pursue its challenge about the comments made, this should be done through the courts. There is nothing in the letter complained of which we consider amounts to fault.
- We would only consider any injustice if we found fault, but for the sake of clarity, we do not agree the charity has suffered a financial loss as a result of the Council’s decision. The loss claimed is due to the tenant’s failure to pay rent to the charity, which is not a direct consequence of the Council’s decision.
Final decision
- We will not investigate X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault to justify an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman