Summary: Ms X complained the Council ended the tenancy on her allotment without following the correct procedure. The Ombudsman finds the Council was not at fault.

The complaint

1. Ms X complained the Council ended the tenancy on her allotment without following the correct procedure. She said she has lost money on plants she had brought and that the allotment was beneficial to her mental health.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
3. If we are satisfied with a council’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I read Ms X’s complaint and made enquiries of the Council. I considered its response including the allotment policy and the correspondence it had with Ms X.
5. Ms X and the Council both had the opportunity to comment on my draft decision.

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What I found

6. If a tenant does not look after their allotment in line with the Council’s allotment policy, the Council will send them an improvement notice. The tenant then has 28 days to make the stated improvements to their allotment. If after reinspection the tenant has not addressed the issues, the Council sends a second improvement notice. If the tenant does not take the stated action, the Council can give them 28 days’ notice and end the tenancy.
7. The policy says that allotment tenants must not do anything on their allotment that may be a nuisance or annoyance to other people. It says tenants must not “harass, intimidate or abuse anybody on the allotment site”.
8. The Council can end the tenancy if there is a serious breach of any of the allotment rules by giving the tenants one month’s written notice.

What happened

9. Ms X has had an allotment since 2003. The Council sent Ms X a copy of the most recent allotment rules and policy in 2015.
10. Ms X’s allotment used to include two plots, plot A and plot B, positioned next to each other. In 2016, the Council sent Ms X two improvement notices about plot A. It said she had not grown produce on 60% of the allotment and she had failed to remove weeds. Ms X did not make the required improvements, so the Council ended the tenancy on plot A.
11. Ms X continued to rent plot B. In February 2019, the allotment inspection officer visited the site, intending to split plot A into two separate allotments for new tenants. They found abusive signs on plot A and on plot B. The allotment inspection officer discussed the signs with their manager. They were confident Ms X was responsible for the signs. The Council considered sending an advisory notice to Ms X but because of the content of the signs it felt there had been a serious breach of the allotment rules about ‘nuisance and annoyance’.
12. The Council sent Ms X a letter giving her one month’s notice on her allotment. Ms X was unhappy with the Council’s decision and complained. She said the signs were not visible unless people walked through her allotment. She said they were in response to harassment she had experienced from others. Ms X said the Council should have sent her two improvement notices before ending her tenancy.
13. The Council considered Ms X’s complaint through two stages of its complaint process. It did not uphold Ms X’s complaint. It found the signs were unacceptable and were a serious breach of allotment rules. It found the Council had ended Ms X’s tenancy correctly. Ms X remained unhappy and complained to the Ombudsman.

My findings

14. The Ombudsman cannot find fault with a council’s decision simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in how the council made its decision.
15. The Council’s allotment policy says that if there is a serious breach of rules, the Council can give a tenant a months’ notice and end their tenancy. The Council visited Ms X’s allotment and found she had placed signs on it which it considered could cause offence to others. After consideration, the Council decided to end Ms X’s tenancy. It did not think it was suitable to issue improvement notices. The Council was entitled to make that decision. Because there was a serious breach, it did not have to issue Ms X improvement notices before ending her tenancy. The Council was not at fault.

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Final decision

16. Ms X complained the Council ended her tenancy without following the correct procedures. The Council was not at fault therefore I have completed my investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman