Summary: The Council was not at fault for requiring Ms X to settle a historic debt as part of her Right to Buy (RtB) application. The Council was at fault for failing to make it clear that Ms X’s rent arrears from her time in temporary accommodation would remain on her housing account. This caused Ms X uncertainty during the Right to Buy application process. The Council has already apologised to Ms X which is sufficient to remedy the injustice caused.

The complaint

1. Ms X complained the Council wrongly charged her rent arrears for her temporary accommodation between October 2020 and January 2021, provided misleading information about those arrears and later required her to pay them as part of her Right to Buy (RtB) application.
2. Ms X said this caused her distress and financial hardship. She wants the Council to acknowledge the error, reimburse her for the arrears she has paid, and make a further financial payment to remedy her injustice.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused significant injustice, or that could cause injustice to others in the future we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. When considering complaints, we make findings based on the balance of probabilities. This means that we look at the available relevant evidence and decide what was more likely to have happened.
5. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(1), as amended)

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What I have and have not investigated

6. I have investigated the Council’s decision requiring Ms X to pay a historic debt as part of her RtB application from January 2024.
7. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
8. Part of Ms X’s complaint is that the Council wrongly charged her rent arrears during her time in temporary accommodation between October 2020 and January 2021. This part of Ms X’s complaint is late. Ms X was aware of the rent arrears at the time and there are no good reasons why she could not have complained to the Council or us sooner about the matter.
9. I have investigated the part of Ms X’s complaint that the Council provided misleading information to Ms X in February 2021 when it informed her the rent arrears would likely not be applied to her housing account. The Council only made Ms X aware in June 2025 as part of her RtB application that it had applied the rent arrears to her account in 2021 and as a result this part of Ms X’s complaint is not late.

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How I considered this complaint

10. I considered evidence provided by Ms X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
11. Ms X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

Relevant law and guidance

The Right to Buy (RtB) scheme

12. The Council operates the Right to Buy scheme, which allows eligible secure tenants to apply to purchase their council home at a discount, subject to the relevant statutory criteria. As part of the process, the Council may consider whether there are any outstanding housing-related debts or other issues that could affect the progression of an application.

What happened

Background

13. In 2020, Ms X became homeless and the Council placed her in interim temporary accommodation (property A) from October 2020 to January 2021. She received Housing Benefit which did not fully cover the rent. She said the Council told her it would cover all rent and she would not have to pay, but there is no evidence to support this. In February 2021, when the Council accepted it owed Ms X the main housing duty, it moved her to a new accommodation (property B) and informed her at the time she had nearly £2,000 in rent arrears from her time in property A. At that time, the Council emailed Ms X to inform her that it was unlikely to pursue the debt through legal action or apply it to her housing account.

Matters subject to investigation

14. In January 2024 Ms X made a Right to Buy (RtB) request for property B and as part of the application process, the Council highlighted the rent arrears Ms X had accrued while renting Property A and asked her to pay this debt as a condition of purchase.
15. Ms X paid the rent arrears in June 2025 to progress her application but later complained to the Council about the matter. She said the Council informed her in 2021 that it would likely not take legal action to pursue the debt or apply it to her housing account. She therefore did not agree with the Council’s decision that she needed to clear the rent arrears as part of the RtB process.
16. In July 2025 the Council responded to Ms X’s complaint and said it had fairly applied the rent arrears to her account and it had informed her on four different occasions of the arrears in early 2021.
17. In response, Ms X escalated her complaint to stage two of the Council’s complaints process. She said she had documentary evidence to support her argument and the Council had failed to consider it.
18. In August 2025, the Council responded to Ms X stating that, when it offered her property A as interim temporary accommodation, she had signed a licence agreement which made clear she was responsible for paying all the weekly rent. The Council also said it was entitled, under the RtB legislation, to require tenants to clear historic debts before progressing their applications. It apologised for previously informing her that any rent arrears would likely not be applied to her account.
19. Ms X remained unhappy with the Council’s response and complained to us.

My findings

20. Ms X had outstanding rent arrears dating back to 2021. The Council took this historic debt into account when assessing her RtB application and required her to clear it, which she did to proceed with the purchase of Property B.
21. Ms X provided evidence that, in 2021, the Council informed her it would not likely pursue the rent arrears or apply them to her housing account. While the Council did not take legal action to recover the debt, it did consider it as part of her RtB application. As set out in paragraph 12 above, the Council was entitled to take any historic housing debt into account as part of assessing a RtB application; as a result, the Council asking Ms X to settle the rent arrears was not fault.
22. The Council acknowledged in its complaint response that the email it shared with Ms X in 2021 contained incorrect information. The Council apologised it did not make it clearer in its email from early 2021 that Ms X’s rent arrears from property A would remain on her account. That was fault and caused Ms X uncertainty during the RtB process.
23. Ms X lived in temporary accommodation for four months and accrued rent arrears during this time. She was able to repay the debt to proceed with the purchase of property B. While the information the Council shared with Ms X in 2021 caused her uncertainty during the RtB process in 2025, the Council’s apology was a suitable remedy.

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Decision

24. I have found fault which caused Ms X injustice which the Council already remedied.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman