The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s actions to resolve repair issues in X’s private rented property. This is because X has not allowed her landlord’s contractors into the property and so there is no evidence of fault by the Council.
The complaint
X complains the Council has failed to take action against her landlord when she had no heating or hot water in her property. X says the Council also failed to take action against her landlord for failing to have a gas safety certificate for gas appliances in the property.
X says the Council’s actions have caused her significant distress and put her family at risk.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The Council has asked X’s landlord to resolve the issues at the property. X has refused to allow the landlord’s contractors to enter the property. The Council has offered to accompany contractors but X has not requested asked it to do so.
There is insufficient evidence of fault as the Council cannot take enforcement action against X’s landlord if she is not allowing it to complete work in her property. Therefore we will not investigate this complaint.
Final decision
We will not investigate X’s complaint because there is no evidence of fault by the Council.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman