The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s responsibilities under a lease. It is more appropriate for Ms X to take court action to recover the losses she claims.
The complaint
Ms X said she leased two properties to the Council but, when the tenants moved out, she discovered they had damaged the property. Ms X said she asked the Council to either put matters right or reimburse her for the costs she would incur in doing so, but it refused. She said it did not properly investigate her concerns but simply advised her to seek legal advice.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We investigate 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 continue an investigation if we decide: any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or there is another body better placed to consider this complaint.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Ms X.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Ms X leased two properties to the Council. The lease for property A ended in September 2024 and the lease for property B ended in December 2024. In its complaint response, the Council said Ms X had provided written confirmation she was satisfied with the condition of both properties when the Council handed them back to her.
Whether the Council has satisfied its obligations under the leases is a legal matter, which only the court could determine. It is therefore appropriate for Ms X to take court action if she wishes to pursue her claim for compensation for financial losses. For that reason, we will not investigate further.
Ms X also complained the Council had not responded to all its emails and had not provided information she asked for. In its complaint response, the Council said its records showed its legal team had responded to all emails. Even if it did not do so, this did not cause sufficient injustice to justify further investigation.
The Council said it would respond to Ms X’s subject access requests separately. If Ms X is unhappy with the information provided, the Information Commissioner’s Office is better placed to address her concerns.
Ms X also said the Council did not respond to all aspects of her complaint. We do not investigate a council’s complaints handling unless we are also investigating the underlying complaint, which we are not doing here.
For all the above reasons, we will not consider the complaint further.
Final decision
We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because it is more appropriate for her to take court action in relation to the Council’s responsibilities under the leases.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman