London Borough of Barking and Dagenham (202334788)

Background

1. On 8 October 2023, the resident complained about the level of service charges for caretaking, grounds maintenance, and lift maintenance. She asked the landlord to explain the charges and provide a breakdown. The resident brought her complaint to us on 7 January 2024 because she was unhappy with the service quality and the landlord’s responses. On 15 October 2025, she made an application to the first-tier tribunal regarding the service charges.

What the complaint is about

2. The complaint is about the landlord’s responses to the resident’s service charge queries and her concerns about the quality of services provided.

Our decision (determination)

3. We have determined that the complaint is outside of our jurisdiction because the resident has since raised the complaint as part of legal proceedings.

Summary

4. The Ombudsman is not free to investigate every complaint referred to us. What we can and cannot investigate is called the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction and is set out in the Scheme. When a complaint is brought to us, we consider all circumstances because some complaints, or parts of complaints, cannot be investigated.
5. We generally will not investigate matters where a resident has had, or will have, the chance to raise the matters in legal proceedings.
6. In this case, the resident raised a complaint with her landlord on 8 October 2023 about the service charges for caretaking, grounds maintenance and lift maintenance. She brought this complaint to our services on 7 January 2024. The resident then made an application to the first-tier tribunal about ground maintenance and caretaker service charges on 15 October 2025. As the complaint to the first-tier tribunal concerns the same issues, we will not investigate the complaint about grounds maintenance or caretaking service charges.
7. It is noted that the lift maintenance does not appear to have been raised in the first-tier application, however this has also been considered outside of our jurisdiction as the resident has had the opportunity to raise her concerns about the lift maintenance service charges as part of the legal proceedings. For this reason, we will not investigate the complaint about the lift maintenance service charges.