Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about a Council decision to disqualify him from the housing register. There is insufficient evidence of fault to warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council has unfairly disqualified him from its housing register based on false allegations made against him.

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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.

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

3. 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

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

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My assessment

6. The Council’s housing allocations policy allows the Council to decide not to accept or to disqualify a person from its housing register on the basis of unacceptable behaviour. It says each case will be considered on an individual basis before a decision is reached.
7. In its complaint responses, the Council explained its decision to Mr X. It said it had considered information from his landlord, the Police and publicly available sources before reaching its decision to disqualify him from the housing register due to unacceptable behaviour.
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 a person disagrees with the decision reached.
9. We will not investigate this complaint. The Council’s housing allocations policy allows it to decide to refuse an application or to disqualify a person from the housing register due to unacceptable behaviour. The Council has explained how it reached its decision to Mr X. There is insufficient evidence of fault to warrant an investigation.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault to warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman