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

The complaint

1. Miss X complained about the Council’s refusal of her application for a management transfer outside the normal housing allocations scheme. She believes she should qualify for a discretionary move because her current council home is cramped and in need of repair and recently she was burgled making her concerned for her safety.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council. I have also considered the Council’s housing allocations policy.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Miss X applied to the Council for a management transfer because her home was burgled and she is concerned for her safety. Her application was rejected because the Council says that she does not meet the threshold. For a management transfer to be accepted an applicant has to be an existing tenant who is at immediate risk or under threat of harassment or subject to other exceptional circumstances. There is usually no choice in the offer which may be made to a successful applicant.
6. Miss X is already an applicant on the Council’s housing register where the Council confirms that she is in Band C for a two-bedroom property. It did not consider that the burglary was more than an opportunist incident and that moving her would not end this household risk.
7. We can normally only consider housing application complaints about allocations under the 1996 Housing Act Part 6. Management transfers are discretionary and are made by the council landlord outside the normal priority banding scheme. In this case there is no evidence that Miss X has asked for a review of her housing application banding. Any concerns about disrepair in her council home would be a matter for the Housing Ombudsman service.
8. 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. In this case the Council considered her application for a discretionary transfer but decided she did not meet the criteria.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s assessment of a housing application for a discretionary management transfer. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman