Southern Housing (202304591)
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REPORT
COMPLAINT 202304591
Southern Housing Group Limited
15 October 2024
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 is about the landlord’s handling of the service of a tort notice and attempted removal of the resident’s vehicle.
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, we have determined that the complaint, as set out above, is not within the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.
Summary of events
- The resident is an assured tenant of a 2 bedroom property. The landlord is a housing association.
- The landlord attached a tort notice to the resident’s vehicle, which said that this was due to it having no valid tax or MOT on 29 December 2022. The vehicle was parked on land it owned and managed. The notice stated that it could sell or dispose of the vehicle in 14 days.
- The landlord arranged for the removal of the vehicle on 23 February 2023. The removal did not go ahead as the resident prevented this by blocking in the vehicle. She stated that the vehicle was damaged during the attempted removal. She reported that another vehicle she owns was also damaged at this time.
- The resident complained to the landlord on 27 February 2023 stating that her vehicles had been damaged during the attempted removal. The landlord issued its final response on 19 June 2023 and the resident escalated the matter to this Service on 20 June 2023.
Reasons
- Paragraph 34 of the Scheme sets out what complaints the Ombudsman may consider. Paragraph 34 (a) states that a complaint must relate to the actions or omissions of a member which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, “have affected the complainant in respect of their occupation of property.”
- The tenancy agreement between the landlord and the resident set out the terms of the resident’s occupation of the property. The tenancy agreement does not set out any provisions concerning the parking of vehicles. Therefore, the complaint did not relate to actions or omissions of the landlord which affected the resident in relation to the resident’s occupation of the property.
- For this reason, the complaint is outside of the jurisdiction of this Service to consider.