Trent & Dove Housing Limited (202323692)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202323692

Trent & Dove Housing Limited

24 April 2025


Our approach

  1. 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 looks to resolve disputes wherever possible but cannot investigate complaints that fall outside of this.
  2. 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 the resident’s transfer application.

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 we will not investigate a complaint.
  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. The resident made a transfer application to the landlord on 16 February 2022. The landlord rejected this application on 17 February 2022 on the grounds that the resident was adequately housed. The resident appealed the decision on 9 March 2022 and the landlord provided its response on 23 March 2022 when it informed the resident it had denied the appeal on the same basis as before.
  2. On 12 October 2022, the resident contacted the landlord to ask why his housing application number did not let him bid on properties. The landlord responded on 13 October 2022 to say it had denied his application in February 2022 and the later appeal.
  3. The resident raised a formal complaint on 14 October 2022 as he was unhappy that he was unable to bid on properties and that the reason for the denial of the transfer application was due to an ASBO, which was incorrect.
  4. The landlord provided its stage 1 response on 27 October 2022. The key points were as follows:
    1. It gave a history of the housing application and reiterated the reason it denied the application at the time.
    2. It confirmed the resident had the opportunity to appeal the final decision, but he had not, nor had he done so within the required timescales, it therefore would not accept an appeal.
    3. It confirmed it had not denied the application on the grounds of ASB and confirmed the resident had a community protection notice (CPN) not an ASBO.
    4. It concluded the response by explaining the resident could escalate the complaint to stage 2 within 10 working days.
  5. The resident contacted the landlord again on 10 October 2023 to raise a complaint about the why he was unable to bid on properties.
  6. The landlord contacted the resident on the same date to say, it would not investigate the complaint as it had provided a response to the complaint previously, the resident had not escalated the complaint at the time and had not provided details for it to reasonably reinvestigate the matter and therefore the case remained closed. It provided the original stage 1 response given in October 2022.
  7. In referring to this Service the resident wished to understand why he was unable to bid on properties.

Reasons

  1. Paragraph 42.a of the Scheme states that the Ombudsman may not consider complaints which are made prior to having exhausted the landlord’s complaints procedure, unless there is evidence of a complaint handling failure, and we are satisfied that the landlord has not taken action within a reasonable time.
  2. The resident raised a complaint in October 2022 for which the landlord gave its stage 1 response on 27 October 2022 and set out the details of how the resident could escalate his complaint to stage 2.
  3. The landlord’s complaint procedure, at the time, set out that an escalation request should be made within 20 working days and that it may not consider complaints about issues that happened more than 6 months ago unless there was a valid reason why the resident did not raise the matter at the time. The resident did not escalate the complaint at the time, nor did he provide any reason as to why he was unable to escalate the complaint at that time.
  4. Furthermore, the policy states that it would not investigate a complaint that had already been through its complaint process. The issue raised by the resident in October 2023 had already been investigated as a stage 1 complaint in October 2022.
  5. In considering the above, we are satisfied that the complaint did not exhaust the landlord’s complaint procedure and there is no evidence of complaint handling failure in this case. The resident was given appropriate advice on how to escalate the complaint and provided no evidence, when he raised the same complaint again in October 2023, to explain why he had not escalated the complaint at the time. His complaint suggests he was raising the same issue again.