West Suffolk Council (21 018 049)
Category : Housing > Allocations
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 27 Mar 2022
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to reduce her priority on her housing application and to end its duty to rehouse here. This is because she had a right of appeal to court and it was reasonable to expect her to use this.
The complaint
- Mrs X complains the Council has reduced her priority on its housing register after she refused an offer of a property. Mrs X says the property was not suitable for her families needs. Mrs X says she has urgent medical reasons for needing to be rehoused.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- The Council accepted a duty to housing Mrs X and her family under Part 7 of the 1996 Housing Act. The Council offered Mrs X a socially rented property to discharge its duty. Mrs X refused the offer.
- The Council ended its duty to house Mrs X when she refused the offer of accommodation. It also reduced her priority status on its housing register. The Council wrote to Mrs X to explain she could ask for a review of its decision.
- Mrs X has not requested review. If she had done so she would have then had a right of appeal to County Court if she was unhappy with the Council’s decision. Therefore we cannot investigate this complaint.
- We have the power to disregard this restriction where we decide it was not reasonable to expect a person to exercise their right of appeal to court. However I cannot see any good reasons why Mrs X could not have asked for a review and a subsequent appeal and so we will not investigate this complaint.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because she had a right of appeal to court and it was reasonable to expect her to use this.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman