Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s assessment of a housing application. It is reasonable for Miss X to ask for a review of her application priority.

The complaint

1. Miss X says that the Council has not made her any offers of 4-bedroomed properties since she last bid unsuccessfully on a vacancy in 2017. She believes she should be rehoused with higher priority.

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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,
• it would be reasonable for the person to ask for a council review or appeal.

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

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. Miss X says she has not been made any offers by the Council for her housing application which is prioritised for a 4-bedroom property. She says she was shortlisted for a vacancy but was unsuccessful and has not been kept informed of her housing priority.
6. We made some enquiries of the Council and it says Miss X has not made any formal compalint recently about her housing application priority. She was shortlisted for a 4-bedroom property in 2017 but was unsuccessful. She has made no successful bids since that time. Although she remains eligible for 4 -bedroom properties the Council stated that these vacancies do not occur often and she may have a very long wait for an offer.
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.
8. There is no suggestion that Miss X’s application is incorrectly prioritised but if she believes it is she could ask the Council to review her priority under s.166A of the Housing Act 1996. The Ombudsman may not find fault with a council’s assessment of a housing application/ a housing applicant’s priority if it has carried this out in line with its published allocations scheme. We recognise that the demand for social housing far outstrips the supply of properties in many areas.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s assessment of a housing application. It is reasonable for Miss X to ask for a review of her application priority.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman