Summary: Mr X complains about the Council’s handling of issues relating to the selective licence he, as a landlord of private rented accommodation, is required to have. We will not investigate the complaint because the availability of appeal rights to the Residential Property Tribunal places it outside our jurisdiction and we will not look at the Council’s licensing of other landlords.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to as Mr X, complains about the Council’s assessment of the number of people who can live in the property he rents out. He says the Council reduced the number of people he can place in the property and that as a result he has lost rental income. He says if his licence has been reviewed, the Council should do the same for all other licensed landlords in its area.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone can appeal to a tribunal. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to appeal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. In considering the complaint I reviewed the information provided by Mr X and the Council. I gave Mr X the opportunity to comment on my draft decision and considered what he said.

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What I found

5. Mr X owns a property which he rents out to tenants and for which he is required to have a selective landlord licence.
6. When the Council first issued the licence to Mr X it stated that 7 people could live in the property. It says it did this because that was the number of tenants living in the property at the time and they had been living there for some time. When they left, the number of tenants allowed to live in the property was reduced due to the size of the bedrooms.
7. Mr X complained about this to the Council. It explained its position and advised he had a right of appeal to the Residential Property Tribunal.

Assessment

8. The restriction highlighted at paragraph 3 applies to this complaint. As Mr X has appeal rights to the tribunal which we reasonably expect him to use, this complaint falls outside our jurisdiction and will not be investigated.
9. Mr X says that as the Council has reviewed his licence, it should also review all other licensed landlords in its area. However, regardless of how the Council has dealt with other landlords, this has not caused Mr X any injustice and if he thinks it has not dealt properly with his licence he can appeal to the Tribunal.
10. In responding to my draft decision, Mr X says the Council changed its mind on the number of people who could live in his property and that the officer who assessed it as a three-bedroom property did so because of a pre-existing grudge against him. However, if Mr X believed the Council’s reassessment was wrong, he could have appealed to the Tribunal and this option is still open to him.
11. Mr X says the Council has acknowledged it gave misleading advice about the 7 people originally allowed to live in the property. However, as this was a number greater than that allowed by the relevant legislation, it cannot be said to have caused Mr X injustice because these people already lived in his property and continued to do so after the licence was first set up.
12. Matters concerning officer behaviour in relation to visits made to Mr X’s property will not be investigated when we are not investigating the substantive issue.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because the availability of appeal rights to the Residential Property Tribunal places it outside our jurisdiction.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman