The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a social housing tenancy issue. This is because we have no remit to investigate the Council’s actions as a provider of social housing. There is not enough injustice separable from the tenancy issues to justify us investigating the complaints process or the other issues arising.
The complaint
Ms X complains, on behalf of Mr Y about the way the Council dealt with tenancy succession issue.
Ms X alleges governance failures, including conflicts of interest in complaint handling, poor information management, lack of coordination between departments, and failure by senior officers to intervene effectively.
Ms X seeks the tenancy succession to be resolved and a joint investigation in conjunction with the Housing Ombudsman.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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) We will not usually investigate complaint handling if we are not investigating the rest of the complaint. This is because there is not usually enough injustice to justify us doing so. We collect information about particularly poor complaint handling practice and report this back to organisations. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), section 34B(8))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The Council's stage 2 complaints response says the succession application was a separate legal process, accepts its policy wording was incorrect, but did not accept that the investigations, complaint handling, equality issues or alleged contradictions amounted to fault. It advised that further concerns could be pursued with the Housing Ombudsman after exhaustion of the housing complaints process.
We will not investigate. The core complaint concerns the Council’s actions as a landlord of social housing processing a tenancy succession application. There is not enough injustice separable from the tenancy issues to justify us investigating the complaints process or the other issues arising.
I do not see anything separable within our jurisdiction that justifies an investigation, nor a joint investigation with the Housing Ombudsman. These are matters more appropriately dealt with by another more suitable body: the Housing Ombudsman.
Final decision
We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because we have no remit to investigate the Council’s actions as a provider of social housing. There is not enough injustice separable from the tenancy issues to justify us investigating the complaints process or the other issues arising.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman