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

The complaint

1. Miss X complained about the Council requiring access to her home to measure the rooms to assess it for statutory overcrowding. She says her landlord has already done this and she believes she is overcrowded and does not need a further visit.

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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
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or

further investigation would not lead to a different outcome))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. Miss X says she believes her home is statutorily overcrowded and the Council should give her additional priority for rehousing or accept her as homeless and provide temporary accommodation. She reported this to her housing association landlord and its officers measured her rooms on two occasions.
6. When she applied to the Council’s housing register the Council told her there was a discrepancy in her description of the property and the measurements by the landlord. The Council told her that it would need to measure the rooms using its own officers to assess if there was statutory overcrowding. The Council made an appointment to do this but Miss X cancelled it due to personal reasons. The Council will still need to measure the rooms because neither the landlord nor Miss X can say that the property is statutorily overcrowded, only a council officer can do this under the provisions of the legislation.
7. The Ombudsman is not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly, we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong, regardless of whether someone disagrees with the decision the organisation made.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s assessment of statutory overcrowding at Miss X’s housing association home. there is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman