The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the disabled adaptations to her council home. This is because we cannot investigate a council’s actions when it is acting as in its management of social housing role.
The complaint
Ms X complained about the standard of work and the behaviour of contactors when making disabled adaptions to her council home. She also complained the works do not meet the needs of her disabled daughter.
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 cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, 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 effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Ms X.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Ms X is a council tenant and asked for disabled adaptations to meet the needs of her daughter.
We can investigate complaints about the DFG process, for example, the way a council has assessed a person’s needs and the adaptations required to meet those needs. Ms X has not specifically complained about the way her daughter’s needs were assessed. In any case, the assessments were carried out prior to 2022, which is more than 12 months before the complaint to us. This means any complaint about the assessment process is late. There is no evidence Ms X could not complain to us sooner about the assessment process and therefore no good reason to exercise discretion to investigate that now.
Ms X complained about the standard of work done, the behaviour of the contractors carrying out the work, and about poor communication whilst work was being carried out. When carrying out the work, the Council was acting as a manager of social housing because the adaptations were being made to its own social housing stock. We cannot investigate complaints about the management of social housing. Therefore, we will not consider those concerns further.
Ms X also raised concerns about whether the works done met the disabled needs of her daughter. In its complaint response, the Council offered to explore those concerns with her and the occupational therapy service. The law says we cannot investigate unless the council has had an opportunity to respond. It is therefore appropriate for the Council to consider this matter further before we get involved.
Final decision
We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because we cannot investigate the Council’s actions as manager of social housing, any complaint about the original assessment of the daughter’s needs is late, and it is premature for us to consider whether the works completed meet those needs.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman