Kingston upon Thames Council (202013280)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202013280

Kingston upon Thames Council

19 April 2021

Our approach

What we can and cannot consider is called the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction and is governed by the Housing Ombudsman Scheme. The Ombudsman must determine whether a complaint comes within their jurisdiction. The Ombudsman seeks to resolve disputes wherever possible but cannot investigate complaints that fall outside of this. 

In deciding whether a complaint falls within their jurisdiction, the Ombudsman will carefully consider all the evidence provided by the parties and the circumstances of the case.

The complaint

1. The complaint is about advice given by a council officer to a councillor about the council’s contact restrictions relating to the resident.

Determination (jurisdictional decision)

2. When a complaint is brought to the Ombudsman, we must consider all the circumstances of the case as there are sometimes reasons why a complaint will not be investigated.
3. After carefully considering all the evidence, I have determined that the complaint, as set out above, is not within the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.

Summary of events

4. On 11 November 2020, the resident contacted a councillor to query whether the Council would be paying interest on a water rate refund.
5. The councillor responded to the resident on 13 November 2020 confirming that interest would be included on any monies owed. And on 14 November 2020, the resident contacted the councillor again to query how the interest would be applied.
6. On 16 November 2020, the councillor informed the resident that a Council officer had advised them to refer the resident’s case to the resident’s single point of contact within the Council.
7. On 20 November 2020, the resident made a stage one complaint concerning the advice that the Council officer had given to the councillor regarding the single point of contact.
8. The Council provided its stage one response on 15 December 2020. It concluded that the Council officer’s advice to the councillor was appropriate.
9. On 15 December 2020, the resident asked the Council to escalate the complaint to stage two because another councillor had told the resident that the advice given to the previous councillor by the council officer was wrong.
10. The Council responded on 16 December 2020 advising that its stage one response had answered the residents query and therefore the complaint would not be escalated to stage two. The Council subsequently referred the resident to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO).
11. On 1 February 2021, the LGSCO provided its final decision to the resident in which it explained that a complaint about water rates was outside its jurisdiction. 
12. The resident referred the complaint to the Ombudsman on 2 February 2021.

Reasons

13. The Housing Ombudsman Scheme sets out which complaints the Ombudsman can and cannot consider. Paragraph 39 of the Scheme states that the Ombudsman will not consider complaints which:

(m) fall properly within the jurisdiction of another Ombudsman, regulator or complaint-handling body.

14. The Council has restricted the resident’s contact with it and provided them with a single point of contact whom all correspondence must be sent. This complaint concerns information provided by the Council to a local councillor about the restrictions which are in place. While this issue arose as the resident was making enquiries about water charges, which is a housing issue, the complaint concerns how the council has applied contact restrictions and the information it provides about these. As the contact restrictions apply to all of the resident’s contact with the council this issue extends beyond housing management and the council’s function as a landlord, to include correspondence and contact about all of its activities as a local authority.
15. Complaints concerning information provided to third parties/councillors about the application of the single point of contact will likely fall within the jurisdiction of the LGSCO, which can be contacted on:

Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman

https://www.lgo.org.uk/       

0300 061 0614.