Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s assessment of a discretionary offer of housing following a tenancy succession complaint. We cannot investigate complaints about the management of tenancies by social housing landlords.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained about the Council’s failure to resolve her succession to her mother’s tenancy in 2021 and the actions of a housing officer in 2022. She says she should be considered for a new-build tenancy in exchange for giving up her mother’s accommodation.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)

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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 her mother moved into a care home in 2016 leaving her and her children in the tenancy. In 2021 she applied to have the tenancy changed into her name but the Council refused this. It accepted that the tenancy issue should have bene resolved years earlier but that she had no right to succeed and began eviction proceedings.
6. Following an appeal, the Council agreed that Miss X could remain in the property as an unauthorised occupier until a suitable two-bedroom vacancy occurred which she could be transferred to. Miss X says she requires a new-build property with adequate parking and when she was offered one in 2024 she refused it because she says there was no play area for her children and inadequate parking nearby.
7. The decision over Miss X’s rights to occupy her mother’s flat is a tenancy management one made by a social housing landlord. The decision to offer her a discretionary move to a suitable vacancy was also a housing management decision. We cannot investigate complaints about the management of social housing by council or other social landlords. We can only investigate complaints about housing allocations when they are subject to an allocations policy under the Housing Act 1996.
8. In this case the decisions about whether to evict or rehouse Miss X were management decisions outside the normal allocations framework and are outside our jurisdiction.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s assessment of a discretionary offer of housing following a tenancy succession complaint. We cannot investigate complaints about the management of tenancies by social housing landlords.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman