Summary: Ms B complains about the Council’s lack of enforcement action about disrepair and vermin at her private rented property. Ms B says the Council’s lack of action meant she was faced with eviction and had to pay for repairs herself. We find the Council was not at fault for the way it investigated the issues Ms B reported. This means we cannot say the Council was wrong not to take further action against her landlord. We have completed our investigation.

The complaint

1. Ms B complains about the Council’s lack of enforcement action about disrepair and vermin at her private rented property. Ms B says the Council has not given proper consideration to the impact on her mental health and the risk to her family. Ms B also says the Council did not return her calls or emails when she told the Council the problems had got worse and there were new issues.
2. Ms B says she is facing eviction because she complained about the disrepair. Ms B also says her family life has been significantly affected and she had to pay for repairs herself. Ms B would like the Council to take action against her landlord.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. 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)
5. If we are satisfied with a council’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I have considered Ms B’s complaint and the supporting information she sent. I have discussed the complaint with Ms B. I have made enquiries to the Council and have considered the information provided by the Council in response.
7. I have also shared a draft version of this statement with Ms B and the Council, and have considered the comments I received in response.

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What I found

Legal background – private housing disrepair

8. Private tenants may complain to their council about a failure by the landlord to keep the property in good repair. Local authorities have powers under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (introduced by the Housing Act 2004, Part 1) to take enforcement action against private landlords where the council has identified a hazard which puts the health and safety of the tenant at risk.
9. Councils must take action for the most serious (category 1) hazards and can choose to take action in regard to less serious (category 2) hazards.
10. Government guidance (Housing Health and Safety Rating System Enforcement Guidance) says:

A hazard awareness notice under section 29 of the Act may be a reasonable response to a less serious hazard, where the authority wishes to draw attention to the desirability of remedial action.

This procedure does not require further action by the person served with the notice, though the authority should consider monitoring any hazard awareness notices that it serves.

11. The Council’s operating procedure for requests regarding housing conditions says:

In cases where there are low scoring Category 2 hazards the case officer should serve a hazard awareness notice setting out the hazards and how they can be addressed.

12. Private tenants seeking repairs may be at risk of retaliatory eviction. This is where a landlord serves a section 21 eviction notice in response to the tenant’s request for repairs.
13. Section 33 of the Deregulation Act 2015 prevents landlords from issuing a section 21 eviction notice within 6 months of having been issued an improvement notice in relation to Category 1 or Category 2 hazards. These measures came into force on 1 October 2015 and only apply to new tenancies started on or after this date.

What happened

14. Ms B lived in a private rented property with her three children, one of whom is under the age of five.
15. In late October 2018 Ms B contacted the Council to report disrepair and vermin at the property. Ms B says holes in the floor and cupboards meant mice and flies got into the property. Ms B said the Council did not need to visit because her landlord and agent were visiting about the matter, but she called the Council again the next week saying she needed the Council to visit.
16. On 19 November a Council officer inspected the property. The Council says the officer did not identify any issues that needed action under the Housing Act 2004.
17. The Council wrote a letter to send to Ms B’s landlord but did not send it because
18. Ms B asked the Council not to. Ms B says the officer overlooked the seriousness of having mice. The Council then closed the case after Ms B said she did not want further action to be taken.
19. In February 2019 Ms B’s landlord issued her with a section 21 notice asking her to leave the property.
20. In late March Ms B contacted the Council again about disrepair and vermin at the property. A Council officer inspected the property on 4 April. The officer identified several Category 2 hazards, but no Category 1 hazards. Later that month the Council sent a hazard awareness notice to Ms B’s landlord. In the notice the Council listed the category 2 hazards it identified and said what the landlord needed to do to put them right. The Council sent a letter to Ms B to tell her this.
21. Ms B says after the Council sent the hazard awareness notice she contacted the Council about two further problems. Ms B says she told the Council she had no electricity downstairs for one month and flies were coming up through the hole in the floor. Ms B says the Council ignored her contacts and did not take action about these issues.
22. Ms B was not satisfied with the Council’s handling of the problems she reported so complained to the Council. The Council responded to the complaint at both stages of its complaint procedure in May and June. The Council did not accept it was at fault. Ms B then complained to us.
23. In August Ms B moved to another private rented property .
24. In response to my enquiries, the Council said:
• As part of this assessment psychological and physiological matters were considered and the Council decided a hazard awareness notice was the most appropriate course of action after having regard to its Enforcement Policy and the Housing Act 2004 and the Enforcement and Operating Guidance for the Housing Health and Safety Rating System.
• The Council sympathises with Ms B’s situation regarding eviction however it has no evidence to suggest this has been conducted unlawfully and as such has no power to deal with the landlord for evicting her.

Analysis

25. The Council inspected the property in response to the reports made by Ms B in late 2018 and early 2019. I have not seen any information to suggest the Council was at fault for the way it inspected the property. The first inspection did not identify any Category 1 or 2 hazards. During the second inspection the Council identified several Category 2 hazards. The Council has clearly set out what these hazards were.
26. Even if the Council was at fault for not identifying these defects during the first visit, this was put right by the Council later serving a hazard awareness notice.
27. Unless there was fault in the way these inspections were undertaken I cannot say the Council’s assessment of the disrepair was wrong. Also, the Council’s decision to serve a hazard awareness notice was in line with its own operating procedure.
28. Ms B says the Council did not give proper consideration to the impact of the disrepair on her mental health and the risk to her family. But, I have placed some weight on the Council’s comment that it did take these matters into account. Also, the Council’s records show the Council was aware Ms B had a young child living at the property.
29. Ms B also says after the Council issued the hazard awareness notice the Council did not return her calls or emails when she told the Council the problems had got worse and there were new issues. The records the Council has provided do not include these contacts from Ms B. Also, Ms B has not provided evidence of these contacts. From the information available I cannot say on balance the Council was at fault for not taking further action after it issued the hazard awareness notice.
30. I have considered whether to investigate this part of Ms B’s complaint further. Ms B moved out of the property in August 2019, which was relatively soon after the Council issued the hazard awareness notice in April 2019. The enforcement of private housing disrepair can be a lengthy process. Also, councils have a range of informal and formal enforcement options to use. Prompt action by the Council during this period may not have resulted in the defects being put right quicker or before Ms B moved out. So, there is some uncertainty about whether the alleged fault by the Council caused Ms B a significant injustice. Also, because Ms B no longer lives at the property, she is not suffering an ongoing injustice as a result of the alleged fault.
31. We must use our limited resources carefully and I find further investigation of this part of Ms B’s complaint is not justified.

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Final decision

32. The Council was not at fault for the matters complained about. I have completed my investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman