Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council giving biased advice to tenants and giving insufficient support to a private landlord. There is insufficient evidence of any significant injustice which would warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained about the Council giving support to his tenant’s allegations about his behaviour as a landlord but at the same time failing to support his claims of the tenant’s breaches of conditions and rent increase proposals.

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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 injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered the information provided by the complainant and the Council’s response.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mr X is a private landlord and he received contact from a Council tenancy relations officer about allegations made by a tenant which he believes were unreasonable. He also says that when he proposed a rent increase, the Council’s officer acted to have the amount reduced in the tenant’s favour. When he asked the Council to investigate his allegations that the tenant was breaching the conditions of tenancy it did not support his claim.
6. The Council says its officer’s role is to pass information between both tenants and landlords to help ensure that both parties understand the requirements of the legal agreement. The officer has no statutory powers in their role but the intention is to avert disagreements which might end in the courts because this is the only arena for deciding tenancy matters.
7. The Council says it has visited the property involved to investigate both the tenant’s and the landlord’s allegations and does not consider it has favoured either party. It says the officer’s involvement in the rent increase dispute was in an advisory mediation role only.
8. Our role is to consider complaints where the person bringing the complaint has suffered significant personal injustice as a direct result of the actions or inactions of the organisation. This means we will normally only investigate a complaint where the complainant has suffered serious loss, harm, or distress as a direct result of faults or failures. We will not normally investigate a complaint where the alleged loss or injustice is not a serious or significant matter.
9. In this case the Council’s officer has acted to provide information in an advisory role only and both the tenant and Mr X as the landlord are bound by the legal conditions of the tenancy agreement.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate this complaint about the Council giving biased advice to tenants and giving insufficient support to a private landlord. There is insufficient evidence of any significant injustice which would warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman