Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s failure to comply with a private lease agreement and delays in handing back the leased property. It is reasonable for Mr X to seek a remedy in the courts for any breaches of the private agreement.

The complaint

1. Mr X signed a private lease agreement with the Council to enable it to let his property to Council tenants. Mr X complains the Council provided a poor management service and gave him false information about the service. He says the Council failed to serve its tenants with notice to leave the property and delayed handing back the property. Mr X complains the property was returned in a much worse condition and there were issues with the rental income received. He says the garden required cleaning, the tenants broke many items in the property, and the Council obtained an invalid gas safety certificate. Mr X says he has lost around £7,000. He wants the Council to refund the management fees paid, issue a valid gas safety certificate and pay him compensation.
2. Mr X complains about the Council’s complaint handling. He says the Council failed to provide sufficient explanations in response to his questions.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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 will not usually investigate complaint handling if we are not investigating the rest of the complaint. This is because there is not usually enough injustice to justify us doing so. We collect information about particularly poor complaint handling practice and report this back to organisations. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), section 34B(8))

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by the complainant.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s management of his property through a private lease agreement. Mr X signed a private agreement with the Council and he is essentially claiming that the terms of the agreement were breached. Determining whether Mr X is legally entitled to a financial remedy would require consideration of liability and the appropriate level of damages. This is not the Ombudsman’s role. We cannot determine disputes over private contracts or liability for damage to property or any costs Mr X incurred. Only the courts can make decisions about such matters. Mr X has an alternative remedy through the courts. It is reasonable to expect him to use this.
9. It is generally not a good use of our resources to investigate the Council’s complaints handling alone when we are not investigating the substantive matters. Any separable injustice to Mr X is not significant enough to justify our further involvement. So, we will not investigate the Council’s complaint handling as a standalone issue.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is reasonable to expect him to seek a remedy in the courts.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman