Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to withdraw its offer to purchase Mr X’s late family member’s property. This is because we are unlikely to find evidence of fault by the Council sufficient to warrant an investigation or that investigation would lead to a different outcome.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council was deceitful in its attempt to buy his late family member’s house. He says it did not disclose what it was intending to use the property for and that it did not tell him that following the acceptance of its offer, it would carry out consultation with residents and ward councillors. He says if the Council had disclosed this information, he would have refused the offer. Instead he accepted it, took the house off the market, missed other selling opportunities and suffered financial loss when the Council then decided to pull out because the consultations had been unsuccessful.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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
• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, 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))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant, including the Council’s response to the complaint.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. The proposed sale of properties can fall through for any number of reasons and there is no guarantee of a sale until contracts are exchanged. While Mr X’s disappointment that the Council did not go ahead with the purchase of the property is noted, there are insufficient grounds to warrant an investigation by the Ombudsman.

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Final decision

6. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we are unlikely to find evidence of fault by the Council sufficient to warrant an investigation or that investigation would lead to a different outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman