Summary: Miss X complained about the Council’s failure to ensure that her social housing rent account was cleared when she surrendered her tenancy on the advice of a social services case conference in 2018. We should not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint which was received outside the normal 12-month period for accepting complaints. The Ombudsman has no jurisdiction to investigate complaints about tenancy matters involving social housing landlords.

The complaint

1. Miss X says her former social housing landlord is pursuing her for rent arrears following her surrendering her tenancy in 2018. She says that the Council advised her to surrender her tenancy following domestic violence in 2018 and that she believed the landlord would end the rent liability without the normal notice period due to her circumstances.
2. She says the arrears are causing her difficulty with her latest application for rehousing and she wants them to be removed.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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)
4. 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)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

5. I have considered all the information which Miss X submitted with her complaint. I have also considered the Council’s response. Miss X has been given an opportunity to comment on a draft copy of my decision.

Back to top

What I found

6. Miss X says she surrendered her housing association tenancy in 2018 following a case conference with social services and other services. She says she understood that her rent liability would end when she signed over the tenancy but has been told by the housing association that she owes over £700 arrears for the notice period which is normally required. This is affecting her current application for housing because former rent arrears are part of the assessment.
7. She complained to the Council in 2019 and it asked her for further information which it says she failed to provide. In 2020 she made a further complaint, but it rejected this because it concerned matters older than 12 months and was out of time. The Council has advised Miss X to contact her former landlord and seek further details of her social services contact in 2018 if it requires this.
8. We do not normally consider complaints about matters which took place more than 12 months before the complainant came to us. This restriction applies to miss X’s complaint. We would not exercise discretion to investigate it now because the arrears are being pursued by a social housing landlord and the Ombudsman has no jurisdiction to investigate these bodies.
9. Miss X will need to take up the matter with her former landlord to resolve the matters concerning the date of liability for rent on her former tenancy.

Back to top

Final decision

10. We should not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint which was received outside the normal 12-month period for accepting complaints. The Ombudsman has no jurisdiction to investigate complaints about tenancy matters involving social housing landlords.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman