Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about how the Council transferred a license from her late relative to the executor of their estate. This is because we would be unlikely to find fault and the Council has not caused the injustice to Ms X.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council transferred a license from her late relative to the executor of their estate. She says the Council should not have accepted the evidence from the executor of her relative’s will. As a result, she says she had to take costly legal action to recover property subject to the license.

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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. (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 Ms X in her complaint and the Council’s responses to her.
4. I sent a copy of my draft decision to Ms X, who had an opportunity to comment on it.

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What I found

Background

5. Ms X is a beneficiary of Y’s estate. She is not the executor; Z is.
6. Y died in April 2020. At the time of their death, Y owned property kept on one of the Council’s sites. This required permission, in the form of a license, from the Council.
7. Shortly after Y’s death the executor, Z, asked the Council to transfer the license for the property into their name. Z later gave the property away to charity, rather than paying the proceeds to Ms X and the other beneficiaries.
8. Ms X says the Council should not have transferred the license to Z. She says the Council should have asked to see the whole will, rather than just the part that appointed Z executor. She says this would have shown that Z was not a beneficiary and that Ms X was. As a result, she says the Council allowed Z to sell the property and Ms X had to pay solicitor’s costs to reverse the transfer.
9. The Council provides licenses to keep properties on its sites but has nothing to do with the ownership of the properties. Its policy is to transfer the licenses to the next of kin or executor if suitable proof is provided. It says the will appointing the executor meant that it was appropriate to transfer the licence to Z when they asked.

Analysis

10. The Council’s policy is to accept, in good faith, requests from the next of kin or executor of a deceased person’s license. Z requested the transfer of the license when Y died. Although Z did not provide a death certificate, they did provide a copy of the will naming her an executor. The executor would be entitled to request transfer of the license and the Council transferred the license according to its policy, so it is unlikely we would find fault.
11. A license from the Council to keep the property on its site does not have any effect on ownership of the property itself. Having a license does not allow the license holder to sell or transfer ownership of property hut if they do not otherwise have the authority to do so. The decision to give the property away was made by solely by Z. The Council was not involved in this decision, so the Council has not caused any injustice to Ms X. Ms X has a separate private remedy against the executor if she feels the executor did not discharge their duties.

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Final decision

12. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because we would be unlikely to find fault and the Council has not caused the injustice to Ms X.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman