Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea (25 031 894)
Category : Housing > Council house sales and leaseholders
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 09 Jun 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about information provided in a section 125 right to buy notice as Mr X could have asked the court for a ruling on his case.
The complaint
- Mr X complained the Council’s section 125 right to buy offer notice contained insufficient information about improvement charges he would be liable for under the terms of his lease. Mr X said that as a result he was unable to make an informed decision about the potential financial risk to him and this prevented him moving forward with the RTB purchase.
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 the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- 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 three therefore applies to this complaint.
- 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 would provide a formal legal ruling which we are not empowered to do.
- For these reasons, it is reasonable to expect Mr X to have used the right to go to court and we will not investigate.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the law provides a remedy in court and it is reasonable to expect Mr X to have used this right.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman