Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to take action over Ms X’s claims of harassment from her landlord. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Ms X complained abut the Council’s failure to take sufficient action against her private landlord whom she has accused of harassment. She says the Council wants more proof of his actions and that it cannot take action without this.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Ms X lives in a house in multiple occupation where she is one tenant of several in the building. She says the landlord has paid unwanted attention to her by passing her in communal parts of the house and sitting outside in his car or outside a shop. She believes he may have been in her room and searched through her belongings when she is out but has no proof of this. She believes he has arranged with other tenants to monitor on his behalf and feels uncomfortable.
6. She asked the Council to advise her, and it contacted the landlord to remind him of his statutory duty not to enter the premises without notice. The Council told her it can do little more because she has not provided sufficient evidence of her allegations. The relevant legislation, which is the protection from Eviction Act 1977 is criminal law and requires a standard of evidence sufficient for the Magistrates Court which she has not provided so far.
7. She says the landlord has served her with a s.21 notice to quit and believes that he may be trying to evict her without waiting for the expiry of the notice period. The Council has advised her that the notice has followed the correct legal procedure for a landlord possession action and it cannot take any action on this at present.
8. We may not question the merits of decisions which have been properly made. We do not comment on judgements councils make, unless they are affected by fault in the decision-making process. This means we will not intervene in disagreements about the merits of decisions.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to take action over Ms X’s claims of harassment from her landlord. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman