Leeds City Council (24 001 212)
Category : Housing > Council house sales and leaseholders
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 03 Sep 2024
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council valuing her home lower than she believes it should for her Buy Back offer to the Council. The property was independently valued by the District valuer and the decision is binding on both the Council and Mrs X. We have no jurisdiction not investigate complaints about decisions by the District Valuer.
The complaint
- Mrs X complained about the valuation of her home made by the District Valuer who was asked to provide an independent valuation when the offer made by the Council to buy back her home was less than she accepted and her own valuation was not accepted by the Council. She says the valuation was £40-60 less than the value in her view and she has now missed the opportunity to sell her home to the Council.
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 impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide:
- there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
- we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
- further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered the information provided by the complainant and the Council. I have also considered the response of District Valuer who works on behalf of the Valuation Office Agency.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mrs X asked the Council to consider buying back her home which she bought under the Right to Buy scheme in 2017. The Right of First Refusal is a provision in the law to allow owners to offer the Council to buy back their home before offering it on the open market.
- The Council offered Mrs X £140,000 as a valuation of her home. she had her won valuation at £150-160,000 and so would not accept the Council’s offer. As with the situation when a council property is being valued for Right to Buy the District Valuer can be asked to provide an independent assessment of the value of the property in question. Mrs X agreed to this and the District Valuer surveyed her home and valued it at £100,000. The decision is binding on both parties.
- Mrs X disagreed with the valuation and complained to the Valuation Office Agency. The Agency, which acts on behalf of the government, told Mrs X that it would not change the valuation and there is no right of appeal. We have no jurisdiction to investigate government bodies.
- The Ombudsman is not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly, we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong, regardless of whether someone disagrees with the decision the organisation made.
- In this case the Council was correct to offer Mrs X the involvement of the District Valuer because no agreement could be made between her and its own estimates. It has no influence on the outcome of the independent valuation.
Final decision
- We will not investigate this complaint about the Council valuing her home lower than she believes it should for her Buy Back offer to the Council. The property was independently valued by the District valuer and the decision is binding on both the Council and Mrs X. We have no jurisdiction not investigate complaints about decisions by the District Valuer.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman