The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about delays in Mr X’s Right to Buy application by his Council landlord. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.
The complaint
Mr X complained about the Council delaying his Right to Buy application for his Council home. He says it issue the offer letter in 2020 but there has been no progress. He says he should receive compensation for the rent he has paid since the process should have been completed.
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, or we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6)) We cannot investigate complaints about the provision or management of social housing by a council acting as a registered social housing provider. (Local Government Act 1974, paragraph 5A schedule 5, as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr X applied to buy his Council home in 2020. The Council issued an offer notice to him but he has not accepted the offer to date. He says the property suffers from structural defects and says the Council has taken nearly two years to arrange structural surveys and remedial work while he has remained a tenant. He complained to the Council and says he wants compensation for the rent he has paid during the delays to repair his home so that he can buy it.
The Council says Mr X did not accept its offer in 2020 and so the Right to Buy process is currently suspended. It has offered Mr X a without prejudice sum of £500 in recognition of the delays in progressing the structural work to his rented home.
The Right to Buy procedure has different stages and each of these has a timescale which applies to the council landlord and the buyer. If an applicant receives an offer from the Council and accepts it the Council must process the next stage within a timescale. The tenant may submit an RTB6 Initial Notice of Delay if the offer letter response is delayed. In this case Mr X has not accepted the offer so there is no delay in the process on the Council’s part.
The Council could have served a default notice or a notice to complete on Mr X following the lack of response to its offer. If he did not respond to this the application could be cancelled. In this case the Council is aware of the structural works required and so did not issue these notices. However, unless Mr X responds to the offer there is no delay in the procedure because he is responsible for completing the current stage in the process.
We cannot consider the issues relating to the repair work by the landlord to the property he is renting because repairs by social housing landlords are tenancy matters and are outside our jurisdiction.
Final decision
We will not investigate this complaint about delays in Mr X’s Right to Buy application by his Council landlord. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman