Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of private housing disrepair issues in her property since 2023. Some issues are late, others fall outside our jurisdiction or carry appeal rights.

The complaint

1. Ms X owns a rental property and complains about the Council’s failure to ensure repairs to common parts of the freehold have been completed. She says the disrepair issues include a leaking roof which has caused damage to her property. She cannot rent the property out or pay the mortgage.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. 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)
4. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
5. We cannot investigate complaints about actions which are not the administrative function of a council. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(1) as amended).

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.

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My assessment

7. The Council served Ms X with an improvement notice for disrepair issues at the rental property she owns. It responded to Ms X’s stage one complaint about this issue in May 2023. The Council has told us it will not consider Ms X’s complaint about this now as it informed her how to escalate her complaint to stage two in its stage one complaint response. There appears no good reason why Ms X did not escalate her complaint or bring her concerns to us at the time. Because of this, there are no grounds to exercise discretion to consider her late complaint.
8. Improvement notices under the Housing Act 2004 carry a right of appeal to the First Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber – Residential Property). It would have been reasonable to expect Ms X to have used her right of appeal if she disagreed with the Council’s decision to issue an improvement notice. We have no remit to consider this in the Tribunal’s place.
9. Ms X has complained about service charges from the company managing the common areas of the building where her rental property is located. These are matters neither the Council nor the Ombudsman can assist with. We also have no powers to intervene in any disputes or concerns Ms X may have about other leaseholders in the building.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because it is late, some matters carry appeal rights to the Tribunal and others are matters that are not an administrative function of the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman