The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to take responsibility for its management agent’s poor tenancy management of council housing. This complaint was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. There is no evidence to suggest that Miss X could not have complained to us sooner. We cannot investigate complaints about the management of social housing tenancies.
The complaint
Miss X complained about the Council’s management agent’s poor performance over the past decades with regard to disrepair, improvement work and access to information about her tenancy and neighbour issues. She says the Council will not take responsibility for its agent’s failure in managing her tenancy.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended) 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) The Information Commissioner's Office considers complaints about freedom of information. Its decision notices may be appealed to the First Tier Tribunal (Information Rights). So, where we receive complaints about freedom of information, we normally consider it reasonable to expect the person to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner.
How I considered this complaint
I considered the information provided by the complainant and the Council’s responses.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Miss X says she has been complaining about dampness and disrepair in her council home for many years and that its managing agent has failed to resolve the problems. She says it cost her £5,000 in solicitor’s fees to obtain a copy of her tenancy agreement and that a freedom of information request about her housing records was restricted, excluding information relating to her neighbour.
We will not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint which concerns matters the complainant has been aware of more than 12 months before complaining to us. I have seen no evidence to suggest that Miss X could not have complained to us sooner.
The time for receiving complaints is from when someone became aware of the matter they wished to complain about, not when they complained to the Council or it issued its final response. We would expect someone to complain to us within a year, even if they were dissatisfied with the time the complaints procedure was taking.
Because Miss X’s complaints mainly concern the agents of her Council landlord we have no jurisdiction to investigate these matters. Miss X is a Council tenant and our jurisdiction to investigate social housing complaints passed to the Housing Ombudsman Service in 2013.
Miss X says the Council refused to disclose all the information on her files when she made a subject access request because it says it cannot disclose third-party information about her neighbour. It was reasonable for Miss X to raise this matter with the office of the Information Commissioner which is the proper authority to investigate complaints about information disclosure.
Final decision
We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to take responsibility for its management agent’s poor tenancy management of council housing. This complaint was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. There is no evidence to suggest that Miss X could not have complained to us sooner. We cannot investigate complaints about the management of social housing tenancies.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman