Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council placing a tenant in a property he owns. This is because we are unlikely to find sufficient evidence of fault in the Council’s actions.

The complaint

1. In short, Mr X complains about the council placing its service user in his property through a managing agent without his knowledge or consent.
2. Mr X says he had to take legal action, and he has suffered financial loss and stress.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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

4. I considered information provided by Mr X.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mr X’s property was rented out via a managing agent (the agent). Mr X reports the agent subcontracted occupation of his property via a letting’s agency to a Council housing services client.
7. Mr X contends he was unaware of who was living in his property and this is the fault of the Council. He says the Council failed to remove its housing client when he asked it to. He also complains the Council stopped making payments.
8. Mr X says he had to resort to taking possession proceedings to remove the occupant causing him to suffer financial loss and significant inconvenience.
9. We will not investigate. We are unlikely to find fault in the Council’s actions. The Council did not hold any contract with Mr X, so it did not have any legal basis to require the occupier to leave. The issues raised about non-payment and occupation arise from contractual arrangements between the agent and Mr X, not the Council, and are therefore not matters we would investigate. Further, Mr X has taken possession action towards remedying his injustice and we are unlikely to be able to link his claimed injustice to any fault by the Council.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman