Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s actions related to her friend, Mr Y’s, former private housing tenant. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault in the Council’s actions and we cannot achieve the outcome she wants.

The complaint

1. Ms X complained on behalf of Mr Y, a private landlord. She complained the Council did not support Mr Y’s former tenant to maintain the tenancy and gave them poor advice after Mr Y served a legal notice of intent to end the tenancy. She said the tenant’s actions have since caused Mr Y financial loss, inconvenience and distress. She wants the Council to apologise and pay a financial remedy to Mr Y.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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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. Mr Y is a private landlord. In Summer 2023, the Council provided advice to Mr Y’s tenant about their legal rights related to their housing. Ms X says this advice was poor and led the tenant to abscond from the property leaving a mess, damage and without paying rent arrears.
6. We will not investigate this complaint as there is insufficient evidence of fault in the Council’s actions. Councils have a duty to try to prevent homelessness. This can include trying to keep a tenant in their current housing to allow more time to arrange alternative accommodation. The Council correctly advised the former tenant of their legal rights related to their housing situation. This is part of their role in preventing homelessness and so further investigation is unlikely to find fault with this.
7. A tenant cannot be made to leave a property without a court order. Given Mr Y had not yet obtained this, it was for the former tenant to decide if and when they would vacate the property. The Council is not responsible for the former tenant’s decisions or actions.
8. Ms X also says the Council should have helped the tenant maintain the tenancy by paying their rent arrears. The Council has discretion to provide financial support as part of its homelessness prevention duty, but any decision is for the Council to make and will depend on the circumstances in each case. The duty to pay rent remains with the tenant as set out in the tenancy agreement. We could not ask the Council to compensate Mr Y for any rent arrears. If Mr Y wants to make a claim against the former tenant for rent arrears or damage to the property he would need to apply to the courts.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault in the Council’s actions and we cannot achieve the outcome she wants.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman