Newham Council (202002206)
REPORT
COMPLAINT 202002206
Newham Council
20 July 2021
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
The complaint concerns reports that the landlord is not following its complaint handling process which the resident considers to be ineffective.
Determination (jurisdictional decision)
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.
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
The resident has raised several complaints about housing issues with their council.
On 2 January 2020, the resident raised a complaint with the landlord about their overall experience of its complaint handling. The resident explained that, in its handling of her other complaints, information was not forthcoming and responses were not provided in line with the timescales stipulated on the landlord’s website. They believed there was a lack of transparency in the landlord’s overall approach to complaints, and questioned whether these factors contravened the governance process surrounding complaints. The resident stated that she considered that the landlord’s complaint process was neither fit for purpose nor applied correctly.
The landlord provided a final response to the complaint on 2 February 2021.
The resident has several housing complaints open with this Service and some of their information was duplicated across cases. In order to clarify the issues which, the resident was trying to bring to this Service, we contacted them between 14 April 2021 and 20 June 2021 to discuss their case.
On 20 June 2021, the resident confirmed that the complaint that they wished us to investigate concerned the landlord’s overall approach to complaint handling and what they believed was a general failure to adhere to its own complaints process.
Reasons
Paragraph 36 and 39 (f) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme states that:
(36) The person complaining, or on whose behalf a complaint is made must have been, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, adversely affected by those actions or omissions in respect of their application for, or occupation of, property.
39 f) concern policies which have been properly decided by the member in accordance with relevant and appropriate best practice, unless the policy may give rise or contribute to a systemic service failure;
The resident has other complaints with this Service which concern the provision of specific housing issues. This Service will consider how the landlord applied its complaint procedure when responding to these complaints, as part of any investigation that we may carry out. This complaint concerns the landlord’s overall approach to complaint handling and, while the resident makes reference to the handling of other complaints, it has been brought in isolation to any specific housing issue related to the resident’s property. Therefore, in accordance with paragraph 36 of the Scheme, this Service cannot investigate this complaint, as it does not relate to a housing issue at the resident’s property.
Furthermore, as set out in Paragraph 39 (f) of the Scheme, this Service cannot consider complaints about the council’s policies.
I am therefore satisfied that this is not a complaint which the Ombudsman can consider.