The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s housing register decision because there is insufficient evidence of fault. We cannot investigate her complaint about a housing association.
The complaint
Ms X complained about the way a housing association handled a nomination by the Council for a property, and about the Council’s later decision that she could only bid for flats and not other types of property.
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 investigate complaints about councils and certain other bodies. We cannot investigate the actions of bodies such as housing associations. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 25 and 34(1), as amended) 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 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
The Council accepted Ms X’s application to its housing register in June 2022. It said she needed a property with two bedrooms.
In 2023, Ms X bid for a two bedroom housing association property through the Council’s housing register. The Council nominated her for the property. The housing association contacted her by email with information about the process and asked her to reply by a specific date. Ms X spoke to an officer at the housing association by telephone on the deadline date to confirm she wanted to accept the property. However, due to an error, the housing association recorded that Ms X had not responded by the deadline. It therefore assumed she had refused the property and allocated the property to another applicant.
We have no power to investigate the actions of a housing association except where the housing association was carrying out an administrative function on behalf of a council. The law says a council makes an allocation when it nominates an applicant for a housing association property. It is then for the housing association to decide whether to offer a tenancy, after carrying out relevant checks. This means that the housing association was not acting on behalf of the Council when the error occurred, and therefore we cannot investigate Ms X’s complaint about the housing association.
Ms X’s housing register application was initially suspended because the Council understood she had refused an offer. But when the housing association explained the error, it immediately removed the suspension. Although Ms X was not able to bid for around three weeks, this was not due to Council fault.
Later in 2023, the Council reviewed Ms X’s housing register application. It said this was because it was reviewing all applications, following changes to its allocations scheme in 2022. It decided Ms X was only eligible to bid for two bedroom flats, and not other types of property. Ms X did not receive the decision and the Council resent in January 2024. Ms X was unhappy with the decision and asked the Council to review it. The Council did so. It upheld the original decision and explained why it was in line with the updated allocations scheme.
We will not investigate the complaint about the Council’s decision Ms X can only bid for flats. The Council carried out a review of its decision. There is no evidence of fault in the way it carried out the review and no delay in doing so. Its decision is in line with its published allocations scheme. We will not investigate further because there is insufficient evidence of fault to justify doing so.
Final decision
We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault to justify this. We cannot investigate her complaint about the housing association, because it is not a body under out jurisdiction.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman