The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because there insufficient evidence of fault in the Council’s decision making which would warrant an investiagtion.
The complaint
Miss X complains that the Council failed to carry out timely risk assessments. She states that she and her children are living in crowded conditions and the Council has caused them emotional stress. She says a property which she wanted to be considered for was withdrawn from the Council’s bidding website.
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: there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating; or further investigation would not lead to a different outcome; or we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the Complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Miss X and her family were provided with Band 1 priority for reasons for domestic abuse. Miss X applied for a property and was successful but then the Council withdraw their decision. Miss X complained that the withdrawal was unjustified and caused distress.
The Council explained that the error in advertising and accepting the offer on the property was done by a housing association and not by the Council because it was one of the properties put forward by the association. As such, the property in question was never one for Ms X to bid on to begin with. The Council also says that at the time she was under offer of another property which she subsequently refused but she would not have been eligible to bid at the same time As the error was not made by the Council, there is insufficient evidence of fault in this action.
Miss X is already in Band 1 which is the highest priority so there was no injustice caused by the withdrawal of the property from the list as it did not affect her status.
The Ombudsman is not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly, we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong, regardless of whether someone disagrees with the decision the organisation made. There is no evidence of fault which has caused any injustice to Miss X in this case.
Final decision
We will not investigate Misss X’s complaint about being offered a property that was subsequently withdrawn because there is a lack of significant injustice to her and insufficient evidence of fault in the Council’s decision making to justify our involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman