Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint the Council has failed to properly enforce its Landlord Licensing scheme. Any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council failed to properly enforce its Landlord Licensing scheme. He said he had provided it evidence of possible breaches, but it had failed to update him about action it intended to take. He wants the Council to pro-actively enforce the regulations and respond in a positive way to information provided by residents.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint the Council has failed to properly enforce its Landlord Licensing scheme for the following reasons:
• We will normally only investigate a complaint where the complainant has suffered serious loss, harm or distress as a direct result of faults or failures by an organisation. There is nothing to suggest the Council’s enforcement decisions have caused Mr X a significant injustice.
• The Council has confirmed to Mr X it is investigating the property he reported concerns about. Therefore, it would not currently respond to his complaint about any lack of enforcement because that could prejudice the ongoing investigation. It explained it made that decision in line with its complaint policy. It said it would consider Mr X’s complaint once it had concluded any proceedings against the property. There is not enough evidence of fault in how the Council considered Mr X’s complaint to justify our involvement.

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Final decision

6. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman