Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of a right to buy application as it is made late and is better addressed in court.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council sought a revaluation of her property with no lawful grounds and issued a revised, higher price sale offer to her in June 2024. Ms X says the Council’s actions have prevented her from exercising her right to buy (RTB) for three years.

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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. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
4. 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

5. I considered information provided by the complainant.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Ms X’s complaint is made late to us as not made within a year of her knowing about the problem in June 2024; Ms X complained to us in March 2026. It is reasonable to expect Ms X to have complained to us sooner and within a year and as such, I do not consider there are good reasons to investigate this late complaint now.
8. Section 181 of the Housing Act 1985 provides a RTB applicant with the right to ask the County Court to determine any question arising under Part V of the Act (all the provisions relating to RTB). The restriction in paragraph four therefore applies to this complaint.
9. As the law expressly provides this route for resolving such disputes, we would normally expect RTB applicants to use it, with legal advice if necessary. There might be some cost to court action, but that alone does not automatically make taking such action unreasonable, particularly in the context of a house purchase. The court can provide a legal ruling as to the lawfulness of the Council’s actions – we are not empowered to do this.
10. For these reasons, it is reasonable to expect Mr X to have used the right to go to court and we will not investigate.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because it is made late and she could have taken her case to court.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman