Summary: We will not investigate Mr X and Ms Y’s complaint about the Council’s handling of contracts in relation to properties they own. It is more appropriate for them to take legal action to resolve the matter.

The complaint

1. Mr X & Ms Y complained about the Council’s handling of contracts. They said it repeatedly ignored telephone and email contacts and delayed putting fresh contracts in place to reflect increased rents. Mr X and Ms Y say the failings caused stress, put them to avoidable time and trouble pursuing the Council and led to them losing thousands of pounds of rent.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, 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)
4. 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:

• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or
• there is another body better placed to consider this complaint, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by Mr X & Ms Y.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

What happened

7. Mr X and Ms Y own two properties, which are rented to the Council, and sub-let to tenants. They say they have been trying since October 2022 to get updated contracts, but the Council has not responded or acted to put new contracts in place. They say following a Freedom of Information request, which the Council responded to in August 2025, they discovered the rent the Council pays for properties increased in May 2023, but the increased have not been applied to their properties and the Council said it could not back-date any rent increases.

My assessment

8. We expect people to complain to us within 12 months of the matters complained about. There is no evidence Mr X and Ms Y could not have complained earlier about the Council’s failure to respond or act, so there are no good reasons for deciding to consider events before October 2024, which is 12 months before the complaint to us.
9. I acknowledge Mr X and Ms Y were not aware of the rent increase in May 2023 until August 2025. However, we will not investigate their complaint about the Council’s failure to apply the new rates from May 2023 because we would not be able to direct the Council to do that, so could not achieve the outcome they seek.
10. Mr X and Ms Y have contracts with the Council. They had (and have) the option of seeking legal advice with a view to ending those contracts and/or getting the properties back. It was/is reasonable for them to do this. We could not require the Council to enter into contracts or revise existing contracts. This is a legal matter for which legal action is more appropriate.
11. For all these reasons, we will not consider this complaint further.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mr X and Ms Y’s complaint because it is more appropriate for them to take legal action.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman