Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s actions concerning a home Mrs X leased to the Council. This is mainly because it is reasonable to expect Mrs X to take court action.

The complaint

1. Mrs X owns a home she leased to the Council. She complains about the Council’s actions when she ended the lease. Mrs X says the Council did not return the property on time, allowed unlawful occupation, did not pay all the rent due and wrongly said damage to the property was just wear and tear.
2. Mrs X wants the Council to pay, with interest, the rent arrears, a service charge she incurred while matters were continuing, the £20,000 shortfall she says there was in the eventual sale price and compensation for other losses.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

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. It is our decision whether to start, and when to end an investigation into something the law allows us to investigate. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended) PV20

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Essentially, Mrs X argues the Council breached a legal agreement and other legal rights she had about her property and she wants compensation for the claimed effects. The courts can consider those points, so the the restriction in paragraph 3 applies.
8. There might be some cost to court action, but that does not automatically make it unreasonable to expect someone to go to court. Mrs X leased the property as a business arrangement, so might reasonably have expected managing the property would not necessarily always go smoothly and could sometimes involve some expense and inconvenience. If Mrs X’s court action were to succeed, she could ask the court for costs. Moreover, interpreting the law about whether parties acted properly under leases or any other legal duties, deciding the results (direct or indirect) of any breach and deciding on any proper remedy, are more properly matters for the courts than for the Ombudsman.
9. Mrs X also complains about the handling of requests for details of surveyor reports, and she says the Council’s correspondence was rude and dismissive. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about how the Council communicated, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint. It is reasonable to expect Mrs X to take court action about what happened with her property. It would be disproportionate to investigate the Council’s communication by itself.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman