Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of her housing case. On one part, the law prevents us from investigating the management of social housing. On the other part, there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains about the Council’s handling of her housing case. She says:
• the Council did not properly deal with mould in her property; and
• her home is overcrowded, but the Council has failed to move her to larger accommodation.
2. Miss X says the mould and overcrowding are affecting her family's health. She wants the Council to provide suitable larger accommodation.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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)
4. 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. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by Miss X and the Council.
6. I also considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Miss X complains the Council failed to address mould in her property. We cannot investigate this aspect of Miss X’s complaint. This is because the law prevents us from investigating complaints about the management of social housing by the Council acting as a social landlord.

Overcrowding and housing priority

8. Miss X says her home is overcrowded and the Council should move her to larger accommodation.
9. The Council assessed Miss X’s accommodation as being overcrowded and registered her for a four-bedroom property under its allocation scheme. This is in line with the Council’s housing allocation policy. There is not enough evidence of fault in how the Council assessed her application.
10. I recognise Miss X wants to move to larger accommodation sooner. However, demand for social housing often exceeds the number of properties available. As there is not enough evidence of fault in the Council's assessment of Miss X's housing application, we cannot require the Council to give her greater priority than other applicants or provide her with housing sooner. Therefore, we will not investigate this aspect of the complaint.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because the law prevents us from investigating complaints about the management of social housing and because there is not enough evidence of fault in how the Council assessed her housing application.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman