Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s request for compensation for the Council’s failure to accept her application to buy her home under the Right to Buy procedure. Miss X also requests compensation for Council delays when processing Miss X’s application after being ordered to by the court. Miss X has already used her legal remedy on the first part of her complaint, so we have no remit to consider. And, as for the second part of the complaint, it was reasonable to expect Miss X to refer the matter back to court as allowed under the Right to Buy Procedure.

The complaint

1. In short, Miss X complains about the Council’s errors in initially refusing to accept her application to buy her home. And then for the Council’s delays while processing her Right to Buy application.
2. Miss X says she was forced to take legal action to compel the Council to accept her application while her mother was seriously ill. She also complains about its delays in processing her application after securing a court judgement ordering the Council to accept her application.
3. She says this left her with legal fees plus a more expensive mortgage. She says all of this caused her a great deal of stress, time and expense while her late mother was suffering with a terminal illness.
4. Miss X is seeking to be reimbursed for part of her legal fees, the extra rent she paid plus the additional costs incurred by her having to secure a mortgage after base rate increase.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

5. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
6. We cannot investigate a complaint after court action has started or about what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended)
7. The Courts have said that we cannot investigate a complaint about any action by a council, concerning a matter which is itself out of our jurisdiction. (R (on the application of M) v Commissioner for Local Administration [2006] EHWCC 2847 (Admin))

8. The Act 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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What I found

Legal background – Right to Buy

9. There is a strict procedure with time limits for each stage of the Right to Buy process. The Housing Act 1985 provides for a Right to Buy applicant to serve a Notice on the Council if they consider it is delaying on the sale. The Council must either move along the sale or send a counter notice to the tenant explaining what action it has taken or explain why it cannot progress the sale.
10. If the Council does not reply within a month the tenant can complete a ‘operative notice of delay’ form. Any rent the tenant pays while waiting for the Council’s response can be taken off the sale price.
11. If a Council still does not act on notices of delay, a tenant may take their dispute to the County Court, under section 181 of the Act. This section of the Housing Act makes provision for an applicant to ask the Court to decide any issue arising during their application to purchase.

Assessment

12. We cannot investigate. Miss X has taken part of her complaint to court already and we cannot look at any matters in connection with this. This applies even if Miss X feels she has not achieved a complete remedy.
13. With respect to the second part of the complaint, Miss X could have referred the Council’s delays back to the court as outlined in paragraph nine. The Court was in the best position to decide the delay complained about and the procedure allows for rent to be taken off the purchase price if there has been delay.
14. It is not possible to separate out Miss X’s request for compensation separately as this is inextricably linked to matters already decided in court or should have been referred to court. We cannot investigate this is a separate complaint.

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Final decision

15. I will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of Miss X’s Right to Buy application. This is because she has already been to court on one part of the complaint, and it was reasonable to expect her to go back to court on the remainder.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman