London Borough of Newham (24 001 948)

Category : Housing > Council house sales and leaseholders

Decision : Closed after initial enquiries

Decision date : 21 Aug 2024

The Ombudsman's final decision:

Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint that the Council wrongly refused to allow her to buy the council property she rents under the Right to Buy scheme. It would be reasonable for Ms X to use her right to go to court.

The complaint

  1. Ms X complains the Council refused to allow her to purchase the council property she rents under the Right to Buy scheme.
  2. Ms X says this caused her distress, frustration and financial loss.
  3. She wants the Council to allow her to buy the house, repay her rent and give her compensation.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

  1. 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

  1. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
  2. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

  1. At the heart of Ms X’s complaint, is a dispute with the Council about whether the property she rents is eligible for her to purchase under the Right to Buy scheme.
  2. The Council says the property is excluded by law from the scheme because it has paid for disabled adaptations to the property. Ms X disagrees and states there are no disabled adaptations.
  3. The law expressly provides for the right to go to court for disputes on Right to Buy matters, including whether a property is excluded from the scheme. The court can, if it sees fit, overturn the Council’s decision and make a binding order, which the Ombudsman could not do.
  4. Whether Mrs X’s property is excluded from the right to buy under the legal provision the Council cites is not necessarily legally straightforward. So, again it is more appropriate for the court than the Ombudsman to consider it.
  5. The potential cost of court action does not in itself automatically mean the Ombudsman rather than the court should deal with this. That is especially so in the context of Ms X seeking to buy a valuable asset.
  6. Overall, therefore, I consider it would be reasonable to expect Ms X to go to court for a decision on this point, so we shall not investigate it.

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Final decision

  1. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because it would be reasonable to expect her to go to court.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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