The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council closing Mr X’s application to buy his Council home. This is because Mr X could reasonably take court action.
The complaint
Mr X complains the Council did not tell him clearly enough or promptly enough that it believed there were problems with his application form to buy his home from the Council. Instead, the Council closed the application. Mr X says this means he can no longer afford to buy his home because the ‘right to buy’ discounts have since reduced.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate. 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)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and copy correspondence from the Council. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The law allows the county court to decide any dispute about the right to buy, except for disputes about the valuation of property. (Housing Act 1985, section 181) The valuation point is not relevant to this complaint, which is, overall, about which discounts should apply once the property is valued. So the county court could decide whether the Council was at fault for closing Mr X’s application in the circumstances. Therefore the restriction in paragraph 2 applies to this complaint.
As the law expressly provides this route for resolving such disputes, we normally expect tenants to use it, with legal advice if necessary. There might be some cost to court action, but that, in itself, does not automatically make taking court action unreasonable. This is particularly the case in the context of the potential benefits to Mr X of being able to buy a valuable asset (his home) and being able to do so at a significantly larger discount than otherwise. Also, Mr X could ask the court for his costs if his court action succeeds. For these reasons, it is reasonable to expect Mr X to use the right to go to court.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is reasonable to expect him to take court action.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman