The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s assessment of disrepair in a private rented property. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.
The complaint
Miss X complained about the Council’s investigation of disrepair in the private property which she rents. She says she has suffered from mould growth due to dampness and other disrepair for a number of years. She says the Council’s inspection of her home was superficial and that it contradicts an independent damp survey which she commissioned. She wants the Council to serve an improvement notice on her landlord.
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 we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered the information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Miss X says the property which she rents from a private landlord has suffered from disrepair for a number of years. She has images from 2017, 2021 and 2022 when repair work was carried out which she says revealed dampness in the structure of the building. She reported the mould problems to the Council in 2023 and it carried out two inspections.
The Council’s investigations did not find evidence of penetrating dampness or leaks consistent with the historical images which would be classed as a hazard under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS). The Council also inspected a neighbouring flat at the tenant’s request and found only minor mould spotting consistent with condensation.
For a council to serve an improvement notice there must be clear evidence of category 1 hazards under the HHSRS provisions. Without this evidence the landlord could successfully challenge a notice by appealing to the first Tier Tribunal which is a court appeal remedy under the Housing Act 2004.
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. We can consider if a Council has responded to a request to investigate disrepair, but it is not our role to question the outcome of the investigation itself.
Final decision
We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s assessment of disrepair in a private rented property. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman