Summary: We will not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint about the Council’s tenancy termination procedure when Ms X transferred from a council secure tenancy to a housing association assured tenancy in 2017. This complaint was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. There is no evidence to suggest that Ms X could not have complained to us sooner. We have no jurisdiction to investigate complaints about the management of tenancies by social housing landlords.

The complaint

1. Ms X complained about the way in which the Council ended her previous council secure tenancy in 2017 when she accepted a transfer to a housing association assured tenancy. She says the legal documents for ending her tenancy were not signed off and processed and she wants to have her tenancy rights reinstated from that time, including the right to buy.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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 has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
3. We cannot investigate complaints about the provision or management of social housing by a council acting as a registered social housing provider. (Local Government Act 1974, paragraph 5A schedule 5, as amended)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

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

Back to top

My assessment

6. Ms X says she was offered a transfer to a housing association tenancy in 2017. She says her previous tenancy was ended by an incorrect procedure and involved deception by the Council land housing association officers. In 2018 she presented herself as homeless to the Council because she said she could not continue living in her housing association tenancy.
7. The Council investigate her case and advised that she was not homeless because it was reasonable for her to occupy her present home. Ms X had believed she held a shorthold assured tenancy but this was not the case.
8. We will not investigate this complaint which was received outside the normal 12-month period for accepting complaints. Ms X was aware of her tenancy status in 2017-18 and could have complained to us. The time for receiving complaints is from when someone became aware of the matter they wish to complain about, not when they complained to the Council or it issued its final response. We would expect someone to complain to us within a year, even if they were dissatisfied with the time the complaints procedure was taking.
9. We have some discretion to consider older complaints but this would not apply in this case. This is because complaints about the management of council and housing association tenancies are outside our jurisdiction and fall within the remit of the Housing Ombudsman service. Consequently we would have been unable to investigate this complaint even had Ms X complained to us within 12 months.

Back to top

Final decision

10. We will not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint about the Council’s tenancy termination procedure when Ms X transferred from a council secure tenancy to a housing association assured tenancy in 2017. This complaint was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. There is no evidence to suggest that Ms X could not have complained to us sooner. We have no jurisdiction to investigate complaints about the management of tenancies by social housing landlords.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman