Leeds City Council (25 009 351)
Category : Housing > Council house sales and leaseholders
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 25 Sep 2025
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council not telling her about changes to ‘right to buy’ discounts. It is reasonable to expect Ms X to take the Council to court.
The complaint
- Ms X complains that the Council did not tell tenants personally and in advance about the November 2024 changes to the discounts for Council tenants buying their homes. She says this has affected her family’s plans to buy their home. Ms X wants the Council to let her buy her home under the previous, more generous terms.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- 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)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Ms X.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- The law allows the county court to decide any dispute about the right to buy (Housing Act 1985, section 181). Ms X can ask the court to decide if the Council failed to publicise the discount changes properly and whether the Council should apply the previous terms to her application. The court can make a binding order. So, the restriction in paragraph 3 applies to this complaint. As the law expressly provides this route for resolving such disputes, we normally expect applicants to use it, with legal advice if necessary. There might be some cost to court action, but that does not automatically make taking court action unreasonable, particularly in the context of a transaction for a valuable asset such as Ms X's home. For these reasons, it is reasonable to expect Ms X to use the right to go to court.
Final decision
We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because it is reasonable to expect her to take court action.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman