Summary: We shall not investigate Mr X’s complaint about delays exercising his right to buy his Council home. This is because we are unlikely to find fault in the Council not offsetting some of Mr X’s rent against the purchase price of his home.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council did not use rent he paid to reduce the purchase price of his home while it was delaying his ‘right to buy’ claim. He states this meant he had to pay at least nine weeks’ more rent than necessary.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe it is unlikely we would find fault. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered the information Mr X provided and the relevant law. I gave Mr X the opportunity to comment on my draft decision.

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What I found

4. Mr X used his right to buy his Council home. He completed this in November 2020. The Council accepts it was responsible for several periods of delay during the process before November 2020.
5. If a Council tenant seeking to buy their home believes the Council is delaying, the tenant can serve an initial notice of delay. If the delay continues, the tenant can serve an operative notice of delay, after which any rent paid will go towards reducing the purchase price. The Council only needs to take off any rent from the purchase price after the tenant serves an operative notice of delay.
6. Here, Mr X obviously believed delays were occurring during the process as he complained to the Council about delays. The Council’s complaint response in September 2020 advised Mr X he would need to serve a delay notice if he wanted any of his rent payments to reduce the purchase price. However, Mr X did not serve an initial delay notice until November 2020, a few days before the completion date. Mr X said he waited until he had a completion date in case there was any further delay. However, as explained above, that is not how the delay notice system works. It is based on tenants serving notice as soon as they believe the Council is delaying. Councils will only take rent off the purchase price after receiving both the initial and operative notices.
7. The Council responded just after the completion date saying the sale had completed so there was no continuing delay. By then, Mr X was no longer paying rent, so he could not serve an operative notice of delay that would offset any future rent against the purchase price. Therefore the Council did not take off any of his rent from the purchase price.
8. We expect people to use the means the law gives them to deal with the financial impact of delay. That means serving delay notices promptly, not waiting until the end of the process. Mr X obviously believed delays were occurring, he had a legal representative and information about dealing with delay is readily available online. So I consider Mr X could reasonably have appreciated the Council would only deduct rent from the purchase price after he served both initial and operative notices of delay. However, he only served an initial notice just before completion and he did not serve any operative notice. In those circumstances, the Council had no duty to take any rent off the purchase price. Therefore I shall not fault the Council for declining to offset any rent.

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Final decision

9. We shall not investigate this complaint. This is because investigation is unlikely to find the Council was at fault for not offsetting any of the rent against the purchase price.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman