Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council cancelling a ‘right to buy’ application. Mrs X has an alternative legal remedy, and it is reasonable to expect Mrs X to take the Council to court.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council acted unreasonably when it cancelled her application to buy her council home on the grounds that she did not send a document in on time. Mrs X says the Council is at fault because it did not remind her about the missing document before it closed the application. Mrs X says the Council’s actions have caused her considerable financial loss as well as stress, and she wants the Council to reinstate her application as it was before it was cancelled.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. 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

4. I considered information provided by Mrs X.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. The law allows the county court to decide any dispute about the ‘right to buy’ (Housing Act 1985, section 181). Mrs X can ask the court to decide whether the Council was right to cancel her application and whether the Council should apply the previous terms to her application. The court can make a binding order. So, the restriction in paragraph three applies to this complaint.
7. 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 Mrs X's home. And in any case, we could not direct the Council to reinstate Mrs X’s application under the terms she seeks. For these reasons, it is reasonable to expect Mrs X to use the right to go to court.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because she has an alternative legal remedy and it is reasonable to expect her to take court action to resolve her complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman