Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council considered Mr X’s housing priority. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault and significant injustice to justify an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains that the Council has failed to adequately house him and his family.
2. He also complains the Council wrote to him in February to tell him that he was eligible to bid for a 3-bedroom property. He says the Council then wrote to him a few days later to say that he was not eligible to bid for a 3-bedroom property. Mr X feels the Council did not explain why it changed its decision.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

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

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. Mr X complains that the Council told him he could bid for 3-bedroom properties and then wrote to him a few days later to say that he was not eligible to do so.
7. The Council apologised to Mr X for telling he could bid for 3-bedroomed properties and then withdrawing this offer. It says the error was caused by a system issue.
8. Whilst I acknowledge that the two letters may have caused Mr X some confusion, the Council corrected its error within five days. I have found no evidence of fault with how the Council applied its Housing Allocations policy in assessing Mr X’s housing needs. Therefore I do not consider Mr X has suffered a significant personal injustice because of the Council’s error in sending conflicting information.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault in the way the Council applied its housing allocations policy. And we do not consider Mr X suffered a significant injustice because the Council originally told him he was eligible for a bigger property and then confirmed he was not.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman