London Borough of Havering (25 005 237)
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a ‘find your own’ housing payment. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault to warrant us investigating.
The complaint
- Miss X complains the Council will not reimburse her rent and deposit payment after she secured private rented property.
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.
(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 I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Miss X found a private rented property and applied to the Council for a ‘find your own’ housing payment. Miss X did not feel she had time to wait for the Council to complete their compliance checks and paid the deposit and first month’s rent herself to secure the property.
- Miss X complains the Council will not reimburse her deposit and rent payment.
- The Council say they need to carry out compliance checks before any ‘find your own’ payment is agreed, and they have not been able to complete these compliance checks.
- The Council’s policy says the compliance checks are required and that where approved, one month's rent and one month's deposit will be paid directly to the agent or landlord of the property.
- I am unlikely to find fault with the Council not reimbursing the payment made by Miss X to her landlord. This is because the Council did not complete the compliance checks, and their scheme does not include reimbursing a tenant when they pay their first month’s rent and deposit themselves.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to warrant us investigating.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman