Norwich City Council (25 010 455)
Category : Housing > Allocations
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 18 Nov 2025
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the condition of a Council property. We cannot investigate complaints about the management of social housing. The part of the complaint about Mrs X’s priority for rehousing needs to be put to the Council first.
The complaint
- Mrs X complains about the condition of her Council property and says the Council has not carried out the work needed.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mrs X and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mrs X lives in a house the Council manages in its role as a social housing landlord. The house needs repairs. Mrs X is unhappy with the Council’s handling of the disrepair.
- As paragraph 2 explained, we cannot investigate complaints about the management of social housing by council landlords.
- Mrs X also want the Council to increase her priority for rehousing. She has not applied to the Council for a reconsideration of her housing application priority. So there is nothing for us to investigate yet. If Mrs X wants to pursue this point, she should apply to the Council and, if she is dissatisfied with the Council’s response, she should complete the Council’s review process. In the event Mrs X remains dissatisfied once the Council has provided a final response, she may bring this point to us and we will consider whether to investigate it.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because we cannot investigate complaints about the management of social housing. The Council has not yet had a reasonable opportunity to deal with the part of the complaint about Mrs X’s rehousing priority.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman