Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with Mr X’s tenants when he evicted them. This is because there is no evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council failed to provide help to his tenants when he was evicting them. Mr X says the Council gave the tenants incorrect legal advice about remaining in the property after the courts had issued a possession order.
2. Mr X says he incurred significant costs evicting his tenants and the Council should have stepped in sooner to help.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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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. We will not investigate this complaint as there is no evidence of fault in the way the Council dealt with this matter. We have seen records held by the Council relating to this complaint. However, we are not able to share these with Mr X due to data protection legislation.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is no evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman