Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s delay in processing her Right to Buy application for her Council home. It was reasonable for her to use the statutory procedure for delay in the purchase process. She could have sought a remedy in the County Court when the Council failed to send a decision within four weeks.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained that the Council delayed responding to her Right to Buy application and when it did, she was informed the application was cancelled due to lack of response from her former landlord. The Council backdated her new application from January following its cancellation notice in April. She says she may have missed mortgage offers due to the two months delay.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Miss X applied to buy her Council home in January 2021. The Council received the forms and told her it would be contacting her former landlord to confirm her years of tenancy. She did not hear further from the Council until it issued a notice denying her Right to buy in April. She complained that the Council did not advise her it would cancel the application because it could not get a response from her former landlord.
6. The Council accepted her complaint and told her it would backdate any new application to the date of her original one. Miss X submitted a new application in May, a month after the cancellation. She says the delay of two months in issuing the notice may have affected mortgage offers she could have considered.
7. Because Miss X could have issued a delay notice after the four weeks’ timescale or applied to the County Court, it is unlikely that the delay would have been greater than seeking these remedies. The Council has offered to backdate her application to January, and this appears to be a reasonable remedy in these circumstances.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s delay in processing her Right to Buy application for her Council home. It was reasonable for her to use the statutory procedure for delay in the purchase process. She could have sought a remedy in the County Court when the Council failed to send a decision within four weeks.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman