Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s delay in addressing disrepair in his temporary accommodation because we could not add to the Council’s own investigation. We cannot investigate his complaint about Council action leading to his homelessness because we cannot investigate complaints about court action.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council had discriminated against him by failing to carrying out emergency repairs to his temporary accommodation in March 2025 and that it made him street homeless unlawfully, which led to him being attacked.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. We cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended)
4. The courts have said that where someone has sought a remedy by way of proceedings in any court of law, we cannot investigate. This is the case even if the appeal did not or could not provide a complete remedy for all the injustice claimed. (R v The Commissioner for Local Administration ex parte PH (1999) EHCA Civ 916)
5. 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, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or

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

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by Mr X.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

Delay in addressing disrepair

8. Mr X reported an issue with the heating in his temporary accommodation one weekend in March 2025. Council records say visits to his address need to be made in pairs and it was not possible for two heating engineers to attend of the day of the report. In its complaint response, the Council said the fault was repaired the following day. It apologised that Mr X felt discriminated against. It explained it would change its systems to ensure an officer would be available to accompany a heating engineer to prevent recurrence of the issue in future.
9. We will not consider this complaint further because there is insufficient evidence of fault causing a significant injustice to warrant our involvement. Further, it is unlikely further investigation would add to the Councils complaint response.

Action to make Mr X homeless

10. The Council took action through the courts to obtain possession of the property provided to Mr X as temporary accommodation and Mr X, with the support of legal advisers, has sought permission to appeal at various points.
11. We cannot investigate complaints about matters which are or have been subject to court action. Therefore, we will not consider this part of the complaint further.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about delays in addressing disrepair because we could not add to the Council’s own investigation. We cannot investigate his complaint about the Council’s actions leading to him becoming homeless, because this relates to court action.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman