Magenta Living (202103912)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202103912

Magenta Living

9 March 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 handling of anti-social behaviour (ASB) allegations made about the resident resulting in a Notice of Seeking possession.

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.

Summary of events

  1. On 4 June 2021, the resident referred his complaint about the landlord’s handling of ASB to this service. He provided a copy of the final response letter which was issued to his complaint on 3 June 2021.
  2. The resident contacted this service on 8 October and explained he was dissatisfied with the landlord’s final response to his complaint. He explained that the landlord had not considered the evidence he had provided or had done enough to investigate the allegations made against him.
  3. On 10 October, the landlord contacted this service to explain that possession proceedings had commenced. This service requested evidence of this which was provided in full on 27 January 2022.

Reasons

  1. Paragraph 39 (h) of the Scheme states that: The Ombudsman will not investigate complaints which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion: concern matters that are, or have been, the subject of legal proceedings and where a complainant has or had the opportunity to raise the subject matter of the complaint as part of those proceedings;
  2. The resident has provided this service with copies of emails between him and his landlord which occurred after the final response to his complaint was issued. They showed that the resident disputed the allegations made against him and that he felt there was not enough evidence to support the action taken by the landlord.
  3. The documents provided by the landlord include a stamped copy of the particulars of the claim and a copy of the resident’s defence. The documents showed the subject matter of the complaint to be broadly the same as the particulars of the court claim. For this reason, the complaint about the ASB is outside of this services jurisdiction to investigate.