Summary: We will not investigate this complaint arising from the sale of a house by the Council in 2005. We are unlikely to find fault by the Council has caused the complainant injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to here as Mrs B, has complained about matters relating to the purchase by her late father under Right to Buy legislation in 2005. She says errors by the Council at the time have caused her financial loss and caused stress in resolving the sale of the property.

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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’.
3. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if, for example, we believe:

• it is unlikely we would find fault;
• the fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained; or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I have considered what Mrs B said in her complaint and background information provided by the Council. Mrs B commented on a draft before I made this decision.

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What I found

Background

5. Mrs B’s father had been a council tenant since 1966 and bought his home from the Council under the Right to Buy legislation in 2005. After her father sadly passed away, Mrs B sought to sell his home. However during the sale she discovered her father did not own a section of garden land which she believes he had bought in 2005.
6. Mrs B says in order to complete the sale of her father’s home, she had to buy the garden from the Council for £5000, including fees. She says the land was omitted from her father’s purchase because of an error by the Council at the time. She also says the land has now been wrongly valued and the Council should refund some of the purchase price.

Analysis

7. It is a fact that Mrs B’s father completed the legal process of purchasing his home in 2005. Any dispute or need for clarification should have been dealt with before completion. There is no basis on which we could assume there was an error by the Council which affected the current position.
8. Mrs B’s recent purchase of the garden land was a commercial transaction between her and the Council. She entered into it to facilitate the sale of her late father’s home. I do not consider it was made necessary by any fault by the Council.
9. It was open to Mrs B to seek an independent valuation of the land or to decide not to purchase it if she thought the price was unacceptable. I have seen no evidence of fault by the Council in this process.

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Final decision

10. I have decided we will not investigate this complaint because we are unlikely to find fault by the Council has caused Mrs B injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman