City of Doncaster Council (24 004 869)
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s operation of a landlord licensing scheme in its area. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.
The complaint
- Mr X complained about the Council charging him the full cost of a 5-year HMO (House in Multiple Occupation) licence when the scheme ended the year after it was issued to him. He says he should receive a refund for the years which are not valid under the scheme.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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
- we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered the information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X is a private landlord who owns a property designated as a HMO. In October 2018 the Council introduced an additional licensing scheme for HMO’s in its area, which included Mr X’s property. The scheme was publicised at the time and landlords were required to apply for a licence in order to continue operating legally within the Housing Act 2004 regulations.
- Mr X failed to apply for a licence until 2020, he says this was because he was unaware of the scheme. The Council did not issue a licence until 2022 which it says was due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions on inspections. It did not take any enforcement action against landlords in this period who had applied and Mr X was one of these. The Council issued the licence in 2022 for 5 years but the period of the licensing scheme was from 2018 to 2023. Mr X says he should only pay for the period in which the scheme was in force, which is either from 2020 when he applied or 2022 when the licence was granted.
- The Council says there is no provision to issue partial licences under the Act and that Mr X was legally required to have a licence from 2018. Failure to have a licence for an HMO can incur unlimited fines or a civil penalty of up to £30,000. It says the last year for issuing licences was 2023 but Mr X has a valid licence for 5 years which is still enforceable. It will not offer a refund because the licence fee was for the length of licence which was issued.
- The Ombudsman is not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly, we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong, regardless of whether someone disagrees with the decision the organisation made.
Final decision
- We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s operation of a landlord licensing scheme in its area. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman