City of Wolverhampton Council (26 013 006)
Category : Housing > Council house sales and leaseholders
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 11 Aug 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council cancelled Ms X’s Right to Buy application. This is because there is a specific legal route to address this issue and it is reasonable for Ms X to use it.
The complaint
- Ms X complains the Council has cancelled her Right to Buy application unfairly. She also complains about the way in which the Council dealt with her complaint about this.
- Ms X says the Council has not dealt with her application fairly and would like consideration of the reasons for the cancellation, and of whether the application should be reinstated.
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 effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
- 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)
- It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Ms X made a Right to Buy application which has been cancelled by the Council. She disagrees with the Council’s process and decision in this regard.
- The Housing Act allows all disputes about Right to Buy applications to be resolved by a county court. The only issue the court will not consider is a dispute about valuation.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because the law provides a specific route to resolve the issue she has raised and it is reasonable for her to use it.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman