Summary: Mrs Y complains the Council want her to sign a new agreement to rent her garage on less favourable terms than previously. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint as it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome.

The complaint

1. Mrs Y says she has had an agreement with the Council to rent the garage next to her flat for more than 20 years. Now the Council wants her to sign a new licence which allows it to give her 2 weeks’ notice to quit the garage. And it will allow it to increase the rent with notice.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered the information provided by Mrs Y and the Council. Mrs Y provided more information after I issued my draft decision which I have also considered.

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What I found

4. Mrs Y have rented the garage next to her flat from the Council for more than 20 years. She says it now wants her to sign a new licence which is on less favourable terms than that already in place. She suspects this reason for the change is so the Council can evict her from the garage and then either sell it or demolish it to make room for new housing.
5. The Council says it is regularising its garage licences to ensure they reflect changes such as fire safety regulations or anti-social behaviour. It believes its historic licences such as the one held by Mrs X includes the following clause:

“If the Council shall at any time determine to increase or decrease the weekly rent for any reason whatsoever or to vary these conditions of tenancy the Council may make such increase or decrease or variation aforesaid by giving to the tenant not less than seven days' written notice thereof.”

6. This means the Council does not need Mrs Y’s agreement to change the terms of her licence, only that it must give her notice that it intends to do so. The Council also states that it does not believe that Mrs Y rents her garage with a secure tenancy agreement. However, the Council confirms it does not hold a copy of Mrs Y’s licence and believes the documents may have been lost some years ago when the Council moved offices.
7. Mrs Y says the Council has deliberately destroyed the original licence in order to change the terms and sell the garages for profit. But I have seen no evidence of this. And Mrs Y cannot provide a copy of the existing licence either. I have spoken to Mrs Y’s son and explained that without a copy of the licence there is no evidence to prove whether the Council is acting contrary to the terms of its existing arrangement with Mrs X and the lack of evidence means I cannot say there has been fault by the Council.

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Final decision

8. I will not investigate this complaint. This is because I have not seen any evidence to substantiate Mrs Y’s complaint that the Council is forcing her to sign a licence which is less favourable that her original agreement. And further investigation is unlikely to lead to a different outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman