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Leeds City Council (202320179)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202320179

Leeds City Council

14 March 2024

 

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 the landlord’s response to the resident’s concerns about the condition of the property at the start of the tenancy and subsequent repairs.

Determination (jurisdictional decision)

  1. When a complaint is brought to the Ombudsman, and throughout our process, we must consider all the circumstances of the case as there are sometimes reasons why a complaint will not be investigated.
  2. After carefully considering all the evidence, I have determined that the complaint, as set out above, is no longer within the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.

Summary of events

  1. The resident has been a secure tenant of the landlord since January 2023. Shortly after the start of her tenancy, she raised concerns about the condition of the property and subsequently reported a number of repairs and pest infestation.
  2. In July 2023 the resident made a complaint to the landlord about the condition of the property and repairs not being completed, despite her reporting these. The landlord provided a stage 1 response in August 2023. The resident escalated her complaint to stage 2 the same month and on 8  September 2023, the landlord provided its final response. Three days later the resident escalated her complaint to this Service.
  3. On 20 September 2023 the resident made an online civil money claim against the landlord for £5,000. Within the claim form, she noted that this amount was being claimed as compensation for damage to her furniture caused by damp and mould, the impact on her health due to mould and pests in the property, and the distress caused by the delays in waiting for the landlord to carry out repairs.
  4. In October 2023 a default county court judgement was made for the landlord to pay the resident £5,000 as it had failed to reply to the claim, within a set timeframe.
  5. In a recent update, the landlord told this Service that it has made an application to the court to set aside this judgement, meaning the matter will be considered by the court for a decision to be made.

Reasons

  1. Paragraph 53(a) of the Scheme states that the Ombudsman may determine the investigation of a complaint immediately if satisfied that the complaint is no longer within the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.
  2. When the resident escalated her complaint to this Service on 11 September 2023 (prior to submitting her legal claim), it fell within the jurisdiction of the Ombudsman to consider and was duly progressed for investigation. It was then on 20 September 2023 that she submitted her legal claim, which can affect the Ombudsman’s ability to investigate a complaint.
  3. Following a period of collecting evidence and waiting for the case to be allocated to an Adjudicator, the investigation began in February 2024. It was at that point that the evidence was reviewed and full details of the resident’s legal claim were considered.
  4. As the resident has made a legal claim against the landlord in respect of the condition of the property and failure to carry out repairs, this matter will no longer be considered by the Ombudsman. This is in accordance with paragraph 41(c) of the Scheme, which says 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.
  5. The resident has chosen to submit a legal claim, as part of which she will have the opportunity to raise her concerns about the conditions within the property, the landlord’s repairs service, and the impact of this on her. As the court will be considering those matters in due course, there is no benefit to the Ombudsman also investigating the same issues.
  6. Therefore, in accordance with paragraph 53(a) of the Scheme, the complaint about the landlord’s response to the resident’s concerns about the condition of the property at the start of the tenancy and subsequent repairs, is no longer within the jurisdiction of the Ombudsman, and will not be investigated further.