Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with requests for the complainants late parents to purchase their home under the Right to Buy scheme. This is because the events happened too long ago.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will call Ms C, complains about the Council dealt with her late parent’s requests to purchase their home from the Council under the Right to Buy scheme. Ms C says the Council’s failings has meant she has lost the right to inherit the family home.

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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)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Ms C.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Ms C’s father sadly passed away in 2021. He lived in a Council owned property, which had been the family home since 1952.
7. In the 1984 Ms C’s parents purchased the home from the Council. However, the Council purchased the property back from them under a compulsory purchase order, due to structural issues identified with the property.
8. Ms C’s parents tried to purchase the property back from the Council in 2002 but their application was denied. A further application was successful in 2012, but at this stage Ms C’s father could not obtain a mortgage, and the Council refused the families request for Ms C to purchase the property. In 2016 the Council refused a further application from Ms C’s father.
9. I will not investigate this complaint. This is because the events that Ms C complains about happened too long ago. I see no reason why complaints could not have been made sooner either by Ms C’s father or by Ms C in 2012, when the Council refused a request for her to purchase the property on her father’s behalf.
10. The time that has passed since the events Ms C describes not only means the complaint falls within the restrictions described in paragraph 3, but it also means it would be less likely we would be able to gather enough evidence to reach a sound and robust evidence.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Ms C’s complaint because the events happened too long ago.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman