Right to buy applications

This fact sheet is aimed primarily at council tenants who are experiencing problems with their right to buy applications and may be considering making a complaint to the Ombudsman.

I am unhappy about the way the council is dealing with my right to buy application. Can the Ombudsman help me?

Yes, in some circumstances. We consider whether the council has done something wrong in the way it went about dealing with your right to buy application which has caused you problems.

But, if you are complaining that the council is delaying in processing your application, we would usually expect you to use the ‘Tenant’s notice of delay’ procedure instead. This was put in place specifically to compensate tenants for any financial loss caused by unreasonable delay. Sometimes we might consider it unreasonable to expect a tenant to have used the procedure because of illness, disability or other personal issues. Then we might look at a complaint. 

We cannot normally look at disagreements about the purchase price of your home, because you can ask the District Valuer to determine the price. In some cases, tenants can ask the Government to get involved if they are having problems using their right to buy. Other disputes can be dealt with by the County Court and First Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber Residential Property) and we would usually expect you to use these alternative remedies.

How do I complain?

You should normally complain to the council first. Councils often have more than one stage in their complaints procedure and you will usually have to complete all stages before we will look at your complaint.

Then, if you are unhappy with the outcome, or the council is taking too long to look into the matter – we think 12 weeks is reasonable – you can complain to us.

Usually, you should complain to us within 12 months of when you first knew about the problem. If you leave it any later, we may not be able to help.

For more information on how to complain, please read our step by step process

If you can consider my complaint what will the Ombudsman look for?

Some of the issues we might be able to look at are if the council:

  • gave you wrong advice on your right to buy your home
  • made a mistake in deciding whether you can buy it, or
  • failed to tell you information you need to know.

What happens if the Ombudsman finds that the council was at fault?

It depends on what went wrong and how that affected you. If we find that something has gone wrong in the way the council dealt with your right to buy application we can ask it to:

  • take action to put the matter right
  • pay a financial remedy for any financial loss
  • review or improve its procedures to make sure the same problems do not happen in future, or
  • vary the discount repayment period.

Examples of some complaints we have considered

Ms X complained that the council failed to deduct rent she paid from the purchase price of her home when she bought it under her ‘right to buy’ even though she had served an operative notice of delay on the council. The council agreed it had made a mistake on completing the sale of Ms X’s home. The Council agreed to apologise and repay Ms X the £1,317.14 rent it owed to her plus £100 in recognition of the time and inconvenience the fault had caused.
Mr S complained that the council unreasonably delayed the completion of his ‘right to buy’ application. The plan the council sent him did not match the layout of his garden, the fence being in a different position to the border shown on the plan. Part of the garden was unregistered land and it took time to resolve. The council took 15 months to complete the sale resulting in Mr S continued to pay rent when he could be paying a mortgage for the property. The council agreed it had delayed the sale and agreed to pay Mr S £600 in acknowledgement of the avoidable frustration, inconvenience and stress caused. 

Other sources of information

See the Communities and Local Government leaflet on Your Right to Buy Your Home at www.gov.uk/government/publications/your-right-to-buy-your-home-a-guide--2

Our fact sheets give some general information about the most common type of complaints we receive but they cannot cover every situation. If you are not sure whether we can look into your complaint, please contact us.

We provide a free, independent and impartial service. We consider complaints about the administrative actions of councils and some other authorities. We cannot question what a council has done simply because someone does not agree with it. If we find something has gone wrong, such as poor service, service failure, delay or bad advice and that a person has suffered as a result we aim to get it put right by recommending a suitable remedy.

June 2023 

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