Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint the Council mismanaged her case which led to her having to pay upfront to secure a private rental property. This was despite the Council having already paid the property agent a deposit and rent. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains the Council mismanaged her case which led to her having to pay upfront to secure a private rental property. She says this was despite the Council already having paid the property agent a deposit and rent.

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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:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

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

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. The Council has a ‘find your own’ scheme to help homeless applicants to find and secure a home in the private rented sector with some financial support from the Council.
6. The Council said it paid a property agent a one-off cash incentive to reserve a property for the Council. The Council then offered this property to Miss X. The Council confirmed it did not make any payments to the property agent for rent or a deposit as the agent only requested the cash incentive.
7. Miss X said when she went to view the property, the property agent told her she had to pay a month’s rent to secure the property. Miss X paid £1000.
8. The Council reviewed Miss X’s rent statement and confirmed that the payment she made was to cover her rent for the month of November as no further charges were made in November. Miss X’s rent was £1000 a month.
9. The Council advised Miss X that she could ask for her Universal Credit to be backdated to the start of her tenancy if she had not claimed Universal Credit housing costs from the start date of her tenancy. It is open to Miss X to do this.
10. An investigation is not justified as we are not likely to find fault. The Council had acted in line with its scheme by making an incentive payment to the property agent to reserve the property for the Council. The Council confirmed it has not made any payments to cover rent or a deposit.
11. There may potentially have been some confusion in terms of the information provided to Miss X with regards to what the payment made to the property agent was for. However, this did not cause Miss X any significant injustice as she was responsible for paying her rent and I am satisfied the payment Miss X paid was to cover her rent for November.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman