Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about harassment arising from private sector housing notices served on a landlord. Some of the complaint relates to matters which Mr X was aware of more than 12 months before complaining to us and we will not exercise our discretion to consider them now. The notices which were served more recently carry a right of appeal to the First Tier Tribunal and it was reasonable for him to use this remedy.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained about enforcement action by Council housing officers against his family’s property company in 2019 and 2020. He says the same officers have served further notices in 2021 and he believes this is harassment of him as a landlord. He wants two officers involved to be removed from dealing with him in the future because they are involved in a prosecution against him on another housing matter.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone can appeal to a tribunal. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to appeal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mr X complained to us in 2020 about the Council’s private sector housing officers serving notices on a property company run by his family. He said he believed the officers were deliberately harassing and seeking to destroy the company by making unfounded allegations. We advised him that he had a right to appeal any Improvement Notices served on him and he withdrew the complaint in 2020.
7. In 2021 he made a further complaint about the same officers who have again served notices on him as a landlord for breaching the housing legislation. There is no good reason for us to consider the matters raised in his original complaint now because they took place nearly two years ago and he had an opportunity to appeal them at the time.
8. Mr X retained the right to challenge any new notices by appealing to the Tribunal or to the Magistrates Court in the case of an abatement notice which was subsequently withdrawn.
9. The Council’s officers’ role is to take action against landlords whom they consider have breached housing legislation related to tenancy management. The Council could not reasonably be expected to remove them from dealing with a particular landlord simply because they have been involved in previous cases or prosecutions. It would be for an appeals body to decide whether a notice was served correctly or reasonably.

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Final deision

10. We will not investigate this complaint about harassment arising from private sector housing notices served on a landlord. Some of the complaint relates to matters which Mr X was aware of more than 12 months before complaining to us and we will not exercise our discretion to consider them now. The notices which were served more recently carry a right of appeal to the First Tier Tribunal and it was reasonable for him to use this remedy

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman