Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s actions during possession proceedings. This is because the law says we cannot investigate what happened in court. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about how the Council handled her reports about her tenant running a food business from her property. This is because any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council treated possession proceedings as a potential retaliatory eviction without properly considering the facts. She says it shared prejudicial enforcement correspondence with the tenant and delayed responding to her enquiries. She says this disrupted court action and caused her financial loss. Ms X also complains the Council failed to properly act on her reports about the tenant inappropriately running a food business from the property.

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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 a complaint about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended)
4. 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 any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Ms X complains about the Council’s actions during the court action for possession. The law says we cannot investigate complaints about what happened in court. Therefore, we will not investigate this complaint.
8. Ms X complains the Council did not act on her reports about her tenant running a food business from the home. The Council said it did visit the property but it did not see some of the issues Ms X highlighted. It also said it had investigated the complaint and told Ms X she could take action for breach of tenancy.
9. I will not investigate this matter. Our role is to consider complaints where the person bringing the complaint has suffered significant personal injustice as a direct result of the actions or inactions of the organisation. This means we will normally only investigate a complaint where the complainant has suffered serious loss, harm, or distress as a direct result of faults or failures. I do not consider any injustice caused by the actions of the Council is significant enough to warrant an investigation by the Ombudsman.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because we cannot investigate what happens in court, and there is not enough evidence that any injustice caused by failures in the Councils response to the tenants running a food business from the property is not significant enough.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman