Summary: The Ombudsman should not pursue this complaint about the Council’s management of housing tenancy matters and its handling of Mr B’s ‘right to buy’ claim. Part of the complaint is outside the Ombudsman’s power and the other part is late.

The complaint

1. Mr B complains the Council took too long to process his application to buy his Council home. He also complains the Council took too long to assign the tenancy to him. Mr B states these points caused stress, upset and financial loss.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
4. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered the information Mr B provided. I shared my draft decision with Mr B and considered his comments on it.

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What I found

Mr B’s application to buy his home

6. Mr B complained to us in November 2019. He said the Council delayed unduly in processing his application to buy his Council home so he lost money by paying rent in the meantime.
7. Mr B’s complaint to the Ombudsman stated he had complained to the Council on 3 April 2018. So I sent a draft decision saying the restriction in paragraph 3 applied. In response, Mr B sent me copies of correspondence with the Council. This showed Mr B had complained to the Council in October 2015 about the progress of his ‘right to buy’ and the resulting alleged financial loss. His April 2018 complaint essentially repeated his previous arguments. So Mr B knew of the main substance of his complaint four years before complaining to us. I have not seen any good reason for that delay. So I shall not investigate the complaint now.
8. From the correspondence Mr B sent me, after October 2015 the only substantive new matter related to the complaint was that around May 2018 the Council sent a him a valuation and an energy performance certificate, both of which he disputed. By July 2018 Mr B was expressing dissatisfaction to the Council that he had not yet been able to go to the District Valuer about the valuation. On 31 July 2018 he mentioned to the Council both the ‘Local Government Ombudsman’ (our organisation) and the Housing Ombudsman Service (a different organisation).
9. So by July 2018 Mr B knew he was dissatisfied about the 2018 events and he knew about us. Mr B has not explained why he did not complain to us for another 16 months. It appears he was in the Council’s complaints procedure for some time in 2018. It also appears Mr B complained to the Housing Ombudsman Service, which would not have been able to consider the ‘right to buy’ complaint. However, I do not consider those points would be good reason for such a long delay in complaining to us. So I do not see good reason to investigate the 2018 events now.
10. I would also add that, even had Mr B complained to us in 2018 or early 2019 about the 2018 events, the bulk of his complaint (about earlier alleged delay) would still have been late.
11. For these reasons I shall not pursue the complaint about the handling of Mr B’s application to buy his home.

Complaint about delay removing previous joint tenant

12. Mr B also states that, before he could claim the right to buy, the Council delayed in assigning the property’s tenancy to him alone after the departure of the previous joint tenant. This point concerns the Council’s management of social housing, which we have no power to investigate as paragraph 4 above explained.

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Final decision

13. The Ombudsman cannot investigate this complaint. This is because part of the complaint is late and the Ombudsman does not have the power to investigate the other part.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman