London Borough of Haringey (23 003 078)
Category : Housing > Managing council tenancies
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 08 Mar 2024
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about failure to replace a fence. The law prevents us investigating the Council’s actions regarding the fence. It would therefore be disproportionate to investigate the Council’s handling of complaints and communications about the matter.
The complaint
- Mrs X complains the Council has failed to deal with a broken fence between a house she owns and a house the Council owns.
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)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and information from the Council about its ownership of the property in question.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- The Council is a registered provider of social housing. The fence belongs to a social housing property the Council owns.
- The restriction in paragraph 2 prevents us considering anything ‘in connection with’ the Council’s management of social housing. Therefore we cannot investigate the Council’s actions regarding the fence.
- Mrs X is also dissatisfied with the Council’s handling of her complaint and communications about the matter. The courts have said we can decide not to investigate a complaint about any action by an organisation concerning a matter which the law says we cannot investigate. (R (on the application of M) v Commissioner for Local Administration [2006] EHWCC 2847 (Admin))
- It would be a disproportionate use of the Ombudsman’s time and public money to investigate the Council’s complaint-handling and communications when we cannot consider the substantive underlying matter (the fence).
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint. The law prevents us investigating the Council’s actions regarding the fence. In that context, it would be disproportionate to investigate the Council’s handling of complaints and communications about the matter.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman