London Borough of Hillingdon (24 006 948)
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of maintenance works to one of its properties. This is because we cannot investigate complaints about the management of social housing by a council acting as a social landlord.
The complaint
- Mr C complains about the Council’s handling of maintenance works to one of its properties which adjoins his parents’ property. Mr C says the Council should have told his parents that work was taking place on the adjoining roof and that some tiles may be removed from their roof. Mr C also says Council workers wrongly stacked tiles on his parents’ roof and did not replace eaves fillers which were removed.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mr C.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr C’s parents own their property. The adjoining property is owned by the Council.
- Mr C’s complaint is about the Council’s handling of maintenance works to the adjoining property.
- We cannot investigate complaints about the management of social housing by a council in its role as a social landlord.
- This restriction to our powers applies to complaints, like Mr C’s complaint, which are about the Council’s handling of maintenance works to a Council-owned property.
- Also, this restriction applies even if the person making the complaint privately owns or rents their property.
- This means we cannot investigate Mr C’s complaint and have no discretion to start an investigation.
Final decision
- We cannot investigate Mr C’s complaint because it is about the management of social housing by the Council.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman