Summary: We cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s increase of its licence fee for renting space at a business centre. This is because the issue is not subject to investigation under the Local Government Act 1974. It is in any event a dispute over whether the Council’s actions breach the licence agreement, which is a matter for the courts.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mrs X, complains the Council failed to comply with the terms of their licence agreement. She says the Council increased the licence fee without sufficient notice and backdated the increase despite the agreement containing no provision for it to do so.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. We cannot investigate a complaint if it is about a specified contractual or other commercial transaction. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5a, paragraph 3, as amended)
4. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mrs X’s complaint concerns the Council’s increase of licence fees relating to her occupation of commercial space within a council-owned business centre. She considers the Council has breached the terms of the licence and disputes the Council’s ability to apply the increases in the way it has.
7. Because the complaint concerns a contractual matter relating to the provision and operation of a business centre it falls within the exclusion set out at Paragraph 3; we cannot therefore investigate it.
8. However, even if this exclusion did not apply it is unlikely we would investigate Mrs X’s complaint further. This is because it is not our role to interpret the agreement and the question of whether the Council’s actions breach the terms of the licence agreement is not something we can decide. These are matters for the courts rather than the Ombudsman.

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Final decision

9. We cannot investigate this complaint. This is because it concerns the Council’s actions in relation to a contractual issue which is not subject to investigation and more suitable for the courts in any event.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman