Hyde Housing Association Limited (202424524)

Background

1. The complainant is the resident’s husband and executor of her estate. The resident was the leaseholder of the property which she rented out privately, and the landlord was the freeholder. He notified the landlord that the resident had passed away. Despite this, it continued to send correspondence addressed to her, which he found distressing. During the probate period, the managing agent responsible for the property agreed to pay any service charge from the rental income. He later found that it had not collected the service charge creating a debt on the account. He was concerned that this failure had put him at risk of potential legal action in his capacity as executor.

What the complaint is about

2. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of service charges and correspondence to the complainants late wife.

Our decision (determination)

3. After considering the evidence, we have found the complaint is outside our jurisdiction. As a result, we have not investigated it.

Reasons

4. We are not free to investigate all complaints referred to us. What we can and cannot consider is set out in the Housing Ombudsman Scheme (the Scheme) In order for us to be able to investigate a complaint, it must relate to the actions or omissions of a landlord which have affected a resident in connection with their application for, or occupation of, a property. Further, we may only consider complaints where a landlord/tenant relationship exists.
5. In this case the matters raised do not concern a specific housing issue affecting either the occupation of, or application for, a property. Neither the complainant nor his late wife occupied the property concerned.
6. Further, the complaint was made following the passing of the resident. We cannot investigate a complaint unless it was brought to us by one of the people eligible to complain. A person is eligible to complain to us if they have (or had) a lease, tenancy, or license with the landlord, or applied for one when the matter arose. Alternatively, a person who is authorised to bring a complaint on behalf of a leaseholder, tenant or licensee is eligible to bring a complaint to us. In this case, the complainant did not have a landlord and tenant relationship with the landlord. He was also not raising a complaint on behalf of an eligible person. As such, we have no jurisdiction to investigate.
7. We recognise that receiving correspondence addressed to his late wife would understandably have caused the complainant distress. This issue relates to the management of data and therefore falls outside the jurisdiction of the Housing Ombudsman. This is a matter more appropriately considered by the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) and the complainant may wish to seek further advice from them. He may also wish to seek advice about service charge matters from the Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE).