Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s response to a pest infestation in temporary accommodation. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained about the Council’s failure to resolve a problem with ants in the hot water cylinder which she says was recurring for years. She wants the Council to refund her the additional energy cost of boiling water back to January 2022 when she says the problem first occurred.

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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 we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

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

3. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council/care provider has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered the information provided by the complainant and the Council’s response.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Miss X says the temporary accommodation where she lives has suffered from ant infestations previous to her most recent complaint to the Council. She has lived there for the past 3 years and says the infestation first happened in January 2022. In October 2023 she complained to the Housing Ombudsman service about a recurrence of the problem. She made a formal complaint to the Council in late 2023 and in January the Council’s pest control officers visited and treated the tank for the infestation. The treatment did not resolve the problem and the Council arranged for a plumber to drain and flush the cylinder. When this also did not eradicate the ants, the Council decided to replace the cylinder.
7. The Council agreed to pay Miss X 10% of the accommodation charge for the months when she used additional energy plus an additional £100 amounting to £232. Miss X says it should pay her from January 2022 when the first infestation was apparent. She did not raise this matter with us within 12 months and did not make a formal complaint to the Council until late 2023.
8. We can only consider her complaint about the recent infestation which is within the past 12 months. She could have reported the earlier infestations to us at the time if she thought the Council’s response was poor. In this case the Council acted to resolve the problem and although it was not successful initially, this was an issue which could have taken place in any accommodation and was not easily resolved.
9. The Ombudsman is not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly, we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong, regardless of whether someone disagrees with the decision the organisation made.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s response to a pest infestation in temporary accommodation. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman