Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s refusal to allow Mr X a discount on a fee for a landlord licence as there is insufficient evidence of Council fault causing an injustice to Mr X.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council will not allow him a 30% discount on its fee for a landlord licence. Mr X says he was not properly notified of the discount.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence any fault caused a significant injustice to the person complaining.

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. Mr X is a private landlord and complains the Council only made him aware of a discount available to him, on its fee for a landlord licence, on 6 July 2022. Mr X says that because of this, he has been penalised financially.
6. The Council refused to allow the discount, as Mr X’s application to join its good landlord scheme, which would have made him eligible for the discount, was made several weeks atter the deadline of 21 July 2022. The Council says it has advertised the scheme and fee structure through various means, including press releases and on its website, since 2021. It says it also took reasonable steps to contact interested parties directly. It considers that Mr X had sufficient time to submit his application following its contact with him on 6 July 2022.
7. As a landlord, it is incumbent upon Mr X to keep up with developments in respect of matters impacting his business and as such, in my view, Mr X could have learned of the scheme by doing such checks. In addition, Mr X had more than two weeks to submit his application once he had been notified directly about the scheme. I do not therefore consider that Mr X’s claimed injustice can be said to arise from Council fault. As such, I do not consider our further involvement is warranted.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence that his claimed injustice arose from Council fault.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman