Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea (26 008 647)
Category : Housing > Council house sales and leaseholders
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 05 Jul 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate X’s complaint about how the Council dealt with their application under the right to buy scheme. This is because we cannot achieve the outcome X seeks.
The complaint
- X complains that the Council did not provide them with correct information about charges and legal fees when they applied to purchase their property under the right to buy scheme. X wants the Council to reimburse them legal fees they have been charged by a third party.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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:
- further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
- we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- The Council accepted that it failed to provide X with relevant information when they submitted their right to buy application. The Council apologised to X and reduced their property valuation by £1000 to account for charges that it had not told X about. The Council said it could not reimburse X £500 in legal fees, as that charge was made by a third party (the leaseholder of the property).
- I will not investigate X’s complaint because the Council’s apology and remedy proposal is proportionate and in line with our guidance. Therefore, investigation would not lead to a different outcome. We cannot ask the Council to reimburse fees charged by a third party so cannot achieve the outcome X seeks in that regard.
Final decision
- We will not investigate X’s complaint because we cannot achieve the outcome they seek.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman