Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about delays in completion of a right to buy purchase as there is a delay procedure in law that the complainant could have reasonably used to address the issue.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains the Council delayed in completing her right to buy (RTB) purchase application. Miss X says she has been significantly financially impacted by this as she had to make rent payments during this period.

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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. It is our decision whether to start, and when to end an investigation into something the law allows us to investigate. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), 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. In law, there are set time limits that a landlord must meet for different steps in the RTB process. If there is delay, the applicant can apply for a reduction in the sale price, due to extra rent payments having to be made. It was Miss X’s right to make use of this delay process, by serving notices on the Council. If the Council did not respond to the notices, then Miss X could have applied to the county court for an injunction to enforce the Council to comply with its statutory duties.
8. It is reasonable to expect Miss X to have followed the delay procedure and ultimately taken her case to court.
9. In respect of court action, as the law expressly provides this route for resolving RTB disputes, we would normally expect 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 would provide a formal legal ruling which we are not empowered to do.
10. For these reasons, we will not investigate.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because it is reasonable to expect her to have sought to address any delay by using the procedure provided under RTB law and ultimately to resort to court action if this did not work.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman