Summary: Mrs X complains about the Council failing to secure her protected Right to Buy when she transferred to a housing association tenancy in 2009. The Ombudsman cannot investigate this complaint. This is because it concerns tenancy matters between a social housing landlord and their tenant and is outside our jurisdiction.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mrs X, complained about her housing association landlord refusing her Right to Buy(RTB) her home because it says she has no protected RTB rights since she became a tenant in 2009. She says the Council should honour a promise of protected RTB which she believed was in place.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
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)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I have considered all the information which Mrs X submitted with her complaint. I have also considered the Council’s response. Mrs X has been given an opportunity to comment on a draft copy of my decision.

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What I found

5. Mrs X says her housing association landlord declined her right to buy her home which means she has lost a possible £48,000 in discount on the purchase. She says the Council told her that she had a protected right to buy when it ceased being her landlord following a stock transfer in 2008.
6. The Council says her RTB was protected following the stock transfer but in 2009 she began a new starter tenancy with a separate housing association which does not accept protected RTB status for new tenants. Mrs X lost the RTB rights when she signed the tenancy in 2009.
7. The Ombudsman has no authority to investigate complaints about tenancy conditions of social housing landlords. The Council has had no involvement with Mrs X’s tenancy since 2008 and we could not consider it now, even had she complained in 2009.
8. If Mrs X’s new tenancy did not include the protected RTB in 2009 she needed to take advice about the agreement before she signed it at the time. the tenancy agreement is a legal document and only the courts can consider varying or ending it.

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Final decision

9. The Ombudsman cannot investigate this complaint. This is because it concerns tenancy matters between a social housing landlord and their tenant and is outside our jurisdiction.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman