Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to re-house a social housing tenant due to neighbour nuisance. We cannot investigate complaints about tenancy management by social housing landlords. We will not investigate the Council’s assessment of her transfer application prior to the past 12 months. It was reasonable for Miss X to raise a complaint with us sooner. There is insufficient evidence of fault in the Council’s latest consideration of her application.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained about the Council’s failure to move her to a new tenancy following several years of complaints about her neighbours. She says the Council did not consider her for a direct let for a vacancy in 2024 which she believes was suitable for her.

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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)
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)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. Miss X says she has been suffering from noise nuisance and anti-social behaviour for a period of 10 years. The Council has not taken action against her neighbour’s tenancy and she has been on the housing transfer register for 9 years. She says after previous unsuccessful attempts, the Council only placed her on a discretionary direct transfer list from 2023.
7. We cannot consider complaints about the actions of social housing landlords in the management of tenancies. Miss X complained to the Housing Ombudsman service in 2024 and this is the body responsible for investigating social housing tenancy disputes.
8. We can consider complaints about housing allocations under the Housing Act 1996 part 6. However, Miss X’s complaints about her past housing priority are outside our jurisdiction because it was reasonable for her to complain to us earlier. The time for receiving complaints is from when someone became aware of the matter they wish to complain about, not when they complained to the Council or it issued its final response. We would expect someone to complain to us within a year, even if they were dissatisfied with the time the complaints procedure was taking.
9. Miss X says she was not considered for a vacancy in 2024 which she believes was suitable for her. The Council says the property was advertised on the bidding system for housing allocations scheme applicants and she has medical priority for a level entry property and the vacancy was a house with stairs which did not match her direct-let priority.
10. Because direct lets are not allocations under the normal allocations policy they are at the discretion of the housing landlord and I can see no fault in the Council’s reasoning.
11. 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

12. We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to re-house a social housing tenant due to neighbour nuisance. We cannot investigate complaints about tenancy management by social housing landlords. We will not investigate the Council’s assessment of her transfer application prior to the past 12 months. It was reasonable for Miss X to raise a complaint with us sooner. There is insufficient evidence of fault in the Council’s latest consideration of her application.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman