Birmingham City Council (202117808)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202117808

Birmingham City Council

5 April 2022


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 residents request that it gift them their existing property.

Determination (jurisdictional decision)

  1. 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.
  2. After carefully considering all the evidence, I have determined that the complaint, as set out above, is not within the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.

Background

  1. The resident has explained to this service that he has been a tenant of the landlord, renting his property for 21 years. He recently applied to purchase the property under the right to buy scheme and was told he could purchase the property for £21,500. The resident requested a history of his rent payments from his landlord which showed that he had paid over £81,000 in rent during his tenancy.

Summary of events

  1. The resident contacted the landlord and asked that it gift the property to him. He explained that as he had paid more in rent than the sale price, the landlord should transfer ownership of the property. The resident complained to the landlord when it refused to do this.
  2. The resident exhausted the landlord’s formal complaints process on 23 February 2022. The landlord set out that it believed it had no obligation to give the property to the resident.

Reasons

  1. Paragraph 39 (r) of the Scheme states that: “ The Ombudsman will not investigate complaints which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion: concern matters where the complainant is seeking an outcome which is not within the Ombudsman’s authority to provide.”
  2. The complaint concerns the resident’s belief that the level of rent they have paid since the start of their tenancy is sufficient and that the landlord should grant them ownership of their property. The Ombudsman is not aware of any such circumstance under which this would be usual. Nevertheless, this service does not have the power to make a decision about disputes concerning the ownership of properties, nor do we have the power to order the landlord to gift ownership of the property. Therefore, the Ombudsman cannot consider this complaint.