Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of her discretionary purchase request. This is because the matter has not caused her significant enough injustice to justify us investigating.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains about the Council’s handling of her discretionary purchase request. She says:
• the Council’s offer does not reflect the true value of her property or consider the impact of ongoing anti-social behaviours on her ability to sell the property;
• the Council did not disclose valuation and inspection records upon request;
• the Council mishandled her complaint and did not contact her as it promised.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide:

• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• there is another body better placed to consider this complaint.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), section 34(B))

3. The Information Commissioner's Office considers complaints about freedom of information. Its decision notices may be appealed to the First Tier Tribunal (Information Rights). So where we receive complaints about freedom of information, we normally consider it reasonable to expect the person to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner.
4. We will not usually investigate complaint handling if we are not investigating the rest of the complaint. This is because there is not usually enough injustice to justify us doing so. We collect information about particularly poor complaint handling practice and report this back to organisations. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), section 34B(8))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

7. Where a property was purchased under the Right to Buy scheme and is sold within 10 years, the homeowner must first offer it to the Council or another social landlord in the area. The buy back is at full market price. Where the homeowner sells the property after 10 years of purchase, there is no requirement to offer it to the Council or for the Council to buy back the property upon request.
8. Mrs X purchased her property under the Right to Buy Scheme over 30 years ago. There is therefore no requirement for the Council to buy back the property. Therefore, the Council’s offer, and how it valued the property, has not caused Mrs X significant enough injustice to justify us investigating. If Mrs X is unhappy with the Council’s offer, it remains open to her to refuse the offer, engage in further negotiations or attempt to sell the property on the open market at a higher price. The Council’s offer does not prevent Mrs X from pursuing these options.

Valuation and Inspection records

9. Mrs X also complains about the Council not disclosing valuation and inspection records upon request. The Council told Mrs X the information was exempt under data protection laws as disclosure could prejudice the Council’s negotiating position in the sale process.
10. Mrs X’s concerns relate to access to information and freedom of information. Complaints of this nature are better placed with the Information Commissioner. The Information Commissioner is the national regulatory body for upholding information rights and considers complaints about how public bodies handle information requests. There is no good reason for us to consider this matter instead of the Information Commissioner. Therefore, we will not investigate this aspect of her complaint.

Complaint handling

11. Mrs X also complains about the Council’s handling of her complaint. As a publicly funded body, we must be careful with how we use our resources. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaint handling in isolation where we are not investigating the rest of the matter. The Council’s complaint handling has also not caused Mrs X significant enough injustice to justify us investigating. Therefore, we will not investigate this aspect of her complaint.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because the Council’s offer, and how it valued the property, has not caused her significant enough injustice to justify us investigating. Her information access concerns are better placed with the Information Commissioner and it is not a good use of public resources to investigate the complaint handling in isolation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman