Summary: We will not investigate Ms X complaint about the Council’s handling of her housing application and her subsequent complaint. There is insufficient evidence of fault to warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains about the Council’s handling of her housing application and her subsequent complaint. She says the Council has discriminated against her family and its actions are unlawful. She wants the Council to make her a direct offer of a suitable property.

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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.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. In its complaint response, the Council said she had been accepted onto its housing register and allocated priority band B, which indicates an urgent need to move. It said it had accounted for her family’s medical needs by allowing her to bid for 3 bed properties.
6. The response also acknowledged that she had told the Council she was at risk of homelessness. The Council said it had allocated her a homelessness prevention officer, who would work with her to discuss her housing options.
7. In her complaint to us, Ms X stated the Council had not responded to all points of her complaint. She said the Council’s responses were unlawful and discriminated against her family’s disabilities. She complained that properties were being advertised but then withdrawn from the Council’s bidding system, which was further frustrating her chances of being offered a property.
8. We will not investigate this complaint. The Council has appropriately responded to the main points of her complaint, which is what we would expect. We could not require it to answer every single point and the Council explained to her why it would not do so in its letter.
9. The Council has assessed her application for social housing and allocated her band B, which appears in line with its housing allocations policy. It has acknowledged that she is at risk of homelessness and offered support from its homelessness prevention team. This is what we would expect. There is insufficient evidence of fault in the Council’s actions to warrant an investigation.
10. Ms X complains the Council’s complaint responses are unlawful and the Council is discriminating against her, but I have seen no evidence of this. If Ms X considers the Council’s actions unlawful, it is open to her to seek legal advice and to consider taking the matter to court.
11. Although I accept Ms X may find the lack of availability of properties on the Council’s bidding site frustrating, it is for the Council to manage its housing stock and decide which properties are available to advertise. We recognise that the availability of social housing far outweighs supply in many areas.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault to warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman