Lambeth Council (202232225)

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REPORT

 

COMPLAINT 202232225

Lambeth Council

23 August 2024

 

Our approach

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.

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 the landlord’s handling of the pre-action protocol and specifically not having given the resident notice of eviction.

Background

  1. The resident is the secure tenant of the property, which is a 2 bedroom flat within a block. The landlord is a council.
  2. The landlord served the resident with a notice seeking possession for rent arrears on 24 April 2019. This was sent in the post along with an accompanying letter explaining the reasons for serving the notice.
  3. A suspended possession order (SPO) was granted by the court in April 2021.
  4. Following breaches of the SPO an outright order was granted by the court and an eviction date was set for 11 July 2022. The eviction did not go ahead and there is no further information on file.
  5. A further eviction date was set by the court for 6 February 2023. The front door locks to the property were drilled but the eviction did not go ahead.
  6. The resident made 3 separate payments between 9 February 2023 and 13 February 2023 which cleared the rent arrears in full.
  7. The resident emailed the landlord on 10 February to make a stage 1 complaint, which included a request for compensation for the attempted ‘illegal eviction’ and the stress caused by this. It provided its stage 1 response on 6 March 2023 by email and said it was carrying out the eviction following an order of the court. It said it was not responsible for sending out the eviction notices and this was the responsibility of the court.
  8. The resident stated she was dissatisfied with the stage 1 response and escalated her complaint to stage 2 on 6 March 2023. The landlord issued its final response on 13 June 2023, confirming its response at stage 1.

Determination (jurisdictional decision)

  1. Under paragraph 41(c) of the Scheme, the Ombudsman cannot consider complaints which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, concern matters that are the subject of court proceedings or were the subject of court proceedings where judgement on the merits was given.
  2.  After carefully considering all the evidence, I have determined that the complaint, as set out above, is not within the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.