Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council (19 019 320)
Category : Other Categories > Commercial and contracts
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 23 Jun 2020
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint about the Council sending the complainant letters about rent arrears for a garage. It is unlikely he would find fault by the Council has caused injustice that would justify his involvement.
The complaint
- The complainant, who I refer to here as Miss A, has complained the Council sends her letters wrongly saying she is in arrears with payments for her garage rent.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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 an investigation if, for example, we believe:
- it is unlikely we would find fault;
- the fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained; or
- any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I have considered what Miss A said in her complaint and background information provided by the Council.
What I found
- Miss A rents a garage from the Council. The tenancy agreement says she should pay the rent in advance.
- Miss A pays her rent in arrears which, on occasion, triggers an automated letter reminding her to pay. The Council has advised Miss A on many occasions she would not receive reminder letters if she paid in advance.
- The Council has not taken any action to end Miss A’s lease of the garage as the result of any arrears.
Final decision
- I have decided we will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is nothing to suggest fault by the Council. Further, if there had been fault as Miss A believes, it would not have caused her injustice that would warrant further investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman