Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s decision to end his tenancy agreement for a business premises as it is unlikely we would find fault. If Mr X believes the Council has breached the agreement it would be reasonable for him to take the matter to court.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains the Council wrongly ended his tenancy agreement for a business premises. He suggests that as a result he will have to close down his company.

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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 we would find fault, or
• the fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• it is unlikely we could add to any previous investigation by the Council, or
• it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

3. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I reviewed Mr X’s complaint and the Council’s final response. I shared my draft decision with Mr X and discussed it with him.

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What I found

5. Mr X leased a commercial premises from the Council from which he ran his business. The lease agreement contained a break clause which the Council decided to exercise in order to regain possession and carry out work on the premises. Mr X says the Council is persecuting him and that his company has lost a huge amount of money as a result of its actions.
6. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. In signing the lease agreement with the Council Mr X agreed to be bound by its terms, including the break clause which the Council has now exercised. If Mr X felt the terms were unacceptable or unreasonable he did not have to agree to them and may have decided to lease a different premises.
7. The Council has decided to end the lease agreement as it is entitled to do and it is unlikely we would find fault in its actions. If however Mr X believes the Council has breached the terms of the lease it would be reasonable for him to take the matter to court.
8. Mr X is also unhappy with the way the Council has dealt with his complaint. But it is not a good use of public resources to look at the Council’s complaints handling if we are not going to look at the substantive issue complained about. We will not therefore investigate this issue separately.

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Final decision

9. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because it is unlikely we would find fault by the Council and if he believes it has breached the terms of the lease it would be reasonable for him to go to court.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman