Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s assessment of Miss X’s housing application. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained about the Council’s decision that her housing application does not qualify for the housing register in its area. She lives in a different Council area and says that her daughter attends a school in the Council’s area and lives some of the time with her father who is also resident in the Council’s area.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. Miss X is a social housing tenant in a neighbouring authority to the Council’s. Her daughter attends a school within the Council’s area and spends some weekdays at her father’s home which is also within the Council’s area. Miss X applied for rehousing within the Council’s area but it told her she is not eligible to be on the housing register because she does not meet the criteria of the allocations policy in terms of residence or employment.
6. Miss X argues that she has a court order giving shared custody of her daughter and that she could spend more time with her father. The Council told her that she applied to it wither daughter as part of her household as a tenant and that her daughter spends most time with her mother who receives child benefit for her. On this basis it considers that Miss X’s application is not eligible for the housing register. If her daughter was to be part of her father’s household this would make him eligible for the housing register but not Miss X.
7. The Council advised Miss X to consider private renting or a mutual exchange within the Council’s area or to seek help with free transport for her daughter’s school journeys as alternatives. There is no evidence to believe that the Council has fettered its discretion when considering her application.
8. The Ombudsman may not find fault with a council’s assessment of a housing application/ a housing applicant’s priority if it has carried this out in line with its published allocations scheme. We recognise that the demand for social housing far outstrips the supply of properties in many areas.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s assessment of Miss X’s housing application. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman