Birmingham City Council (21 016 003)
Category : Housing > Council house sales and leaseholders
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 03 Mar 2022
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of Mr X’s Right to Buy application. This is because we are unlikely to find evidence of fault by the Council.
The complaint
- The complainant, who I refer to as Mr X, says the Council has tried to delay his Right to Buy application despite his confirmation that he is ready to complete.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X applied to purchase his property under the Right to Buy process. During the process he, via his solicitors, raised an issue with the Council regarding the boundary of the property.
- The Council sought information from Mr X about the boundary in question. He did not respond to the query and only stated that he wanted to retract the dispute. However, as he had raised the issue, the Council’s legal team considered that it had a duty of care to ensure the proposed plans were correct and requested a response to its enquiry about the boundary.
- It is only recently that Mr X has responded to the Council’s query. Now that he has done so the Council is able to agree the completion and this is due to take place in a few days’ time.
- Delay in the process occurred because Mr X raised a boundary dispute and then delayed in responding to the Council’s queries about it. I have seen no evidence to suggest there was fault by the Council in its handling of the matter.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we are unlikely to find evidence of fault by the Council.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman