The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to pay a housing payment due to a tenant to Mrs X who is a landlord who was owed arrears. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation. we cannot investigate matters which have been subject to court proceedings.
The complaint
Mrs X complained about the Council ‘s failure to pay her discretionary housing payment which was claimed by a tenant of hers who was in arrears. She also says the Council advised the tenant to include her claim for the payment as part of her statement in her defence against Mrs X’s court possession proceedings.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in the decision making, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended) We cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mrs X is a landlord who let her property to a tenant who went into arrears with her payments. She took a possession action in the court and she says her tenant informed her that she had applied for discretionary housing payment (DHP) which may have cleared the arrears. She says Council officers misled her into believing the tenant had no alternative accommodation and that the payment was a reason for her defending the possession action.
Mrs X subsequently found out that the tenant had secured new accommodation and that the DHP payment was eventually paid to a new landlord and not to cover the outstanding arrears. She says this suggests the statement the tenant submitted in her defence for the court was untruthful. Mrs X complained about the Council’s actions and its involvement in the court proceedings.
The Council told Mrs X that it could not disclose any details about the tenant’s claim for benefit or what payments have been made on her behalf. This is because the General Data Protection Regulation provisions do not allow the Council to disclose personal data from applicants to third parties. It advised Mrs X to seek legal advice about her tenant’s actions regarding the payment.
The restrictions on disclosure apply equally to the Ombudsman and we could not disclose matters relating to the tenant unless the complaint to us was made by the tenant herself. In this case the data also relates to matters which have been subject to court proceedings and we have no jurisdiction to consider what happened in a court action.
There was no fault in the Council advising Mrs X about the restrictions on its release of data to a third party.
Final decision
We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to pay a housing payment due to a tenant to Mrs X who is a landlord who was owed arrears. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation. we cannot investigate matters which have been subject to court proceedings
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman