Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of disrepair and poor conditions in Mrs X’s home. The property is social housing, so the law prevents us investigating.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council failed to deal properly with disrepair, poor conditions and infestations in her home. Mrs X moved from that home shortly after complaining to us.

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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. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and information from the Council, including a copy of Mrs X’s tenancy agreement for her previous home and information about the scheme under which the Council rented that property to Mrs X.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mrs X’s tenancy agreement was with the Council. The Council is a registered provider of social housing. Therefore I must consider whether Mrs X’s home was Council social housing, so I can decide if the restriction in paragraph 2 prevents us investigating the Council’s management of conditions in the property.
6. The Council did not own the property; it leases the property from the owner and the Council then rented the property to Mrs X. The legal agreement between Mrs X and the Council was a “non-secure tenancy agreement.”
7. Council “social housing” is often understood to be where the Council owns a property and has given the tenant a type of tenancy called a “secure tenancy.” However, the legal definition of “social housing” that we must follow is broader than that. For these purposes, the law defines “social housing” as including “low cost rental accommodation,” which is when:
1. accommodation is available for rent,
2. the rent is below the market rate, and
3. the accommodation is made available in accordance with rules designed to ensure that it is made available to people whose needs are not adequately served by the commercial housing market.

(Housing and Regeneration Act 2008, sections 68 and 69)

8. Point a) is satisfied, as Mrs X rented her home.
9. On point b), the Council told me the rent was lower than the market rent.
10. On point c), the scheme under which the Council rented the property to Mrs X (and under which it rented some properties to others) was for people on a low income who were receiving housing benefit then. The Council states Mrs X’s family had a low income. Mrs X’s household composition means it was unlikely the commercial market in Croydon had suitably sized accommodation at an affordable rent for Mrs X.
11. Therefore this meets the definition of social housing that applies to complaints to us. The complaint is about the Council’s handling of conditions in the property, in other words, about the Council’s management of its social housing. This means the restriction in paragraph 2 applies, so we cannot investigate the complaint.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because the law prevents us from doing so.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman