Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about advice the Council gave his tenant. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault to warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X is a landlord. He complains the Council told his tenant to stay in the property after he issued an eviction notice. He says this caused prolonged rent arrears and other costs and he wants compensation.

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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. (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 and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mr X complained to the Council after it told his tenant, who was in rent arrears, to remain in the property after he issued an eviction notice and got a possession order.
6. The Council told Mr X it had a duty to provide housing advice to his tenant. It said it did not encourage tenants to remain until bailiffs arrived and it makes every effort to prevent cases getting to that stage.
7. The Council said it could not share personal information about the tenant with the landlord. It said each case is different but ultimately it was the tenant’s decision whether to act on its advice. It told Mr X that its advice was in line with its legal duty.
8. The Ombudsman is not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly, we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong.
9. I will not investigate this complaint because there is no information to suggest the Council gave advice to the tenant to stay in the property or acted outside of its legal duties.
10. Mr X claims significant financial loss in unpaid rent. As a private landlord, he can approach the court to recover unpaid rent and costs due from his ex-tenant. There is no obligation for the Council to cover his losses.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman