Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about how the Council assessed the disrepair of her property. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to justify investigation.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains that the Council did not properly assess the state of repair of her house despite her raising it with them several times. Mrs X complains the classification of hazards found by the Council was wrong. Mrs X says the Council also failed to enforce the recommendations they have made. Mrs X says the state of her house continued to make her medical condition worse.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
3. 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 further investigation would not lead to a different outcome (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B)).

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mrs X and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mrs X lives in private rented accommodation. She complained to the Council about disrepair in her property. The Council visited Mrs X’s property to carry out a Housing, Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) inspection. The Council carried out an inspection of Mrs X’s property. It concluded there were category 2 hazards. It did not find any category 1 hazards. The Council asked the landlord to carry out some repairs. It did not serve an improvement notice as it did not identify any category 1 hazards. The landlord notified the Council that they had completed the works.
7. It is the landlord’s responsibility to keep the property to a proper standard of repair. The Council’s role was to identify whether there were any hazards. Where the Council identifies category 1 hazards, it has a duty to take enforcement action. Where it identifies category 2 hazards, it has a power but not a duty to do so.
8. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint. The Council reached its decision that there were no category 1 hazards following an inspection of Mrs X’s property. The Council’s inspection report explained its reasons for why it considered the disrepair to be a category 2 hazard. So, there is not enough evidence of fault in how the Council made its decision that there were no category 1 hazards to justify an investigation. The Council also did not have a duty to serve an improvement notice or take other enforcement action as it did not identify category 1 hazards.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about how the Council have assessed the disrepair of her property. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to justify investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman