A2dominion Housing Group Limited · Case 202110110 · 4 March 2022
A2dominion Housing Group Limited — case 202110110
The Ombudsman found maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the landlord’s response to the resident’s reports of a lack of top soil in his front and back garden, and his requests for compensation..
The full determination
REPORT COMPLAINT 202110110 A2Dominion Housing Group Limited 4 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 The complaint is about the landlord’s response to the resident’s reports of a lack of top soil in his front and back garden, and his requests for compensation. 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.
Background The resident is the freeholder of the property. His complaint concerns issues he has found with his garden since he purchased the property. Reasons Paragraph 25 (a) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme states that the following people can make complaints to the Ombudsman about social housing landlords: A person who is or has been (at the time of the issues giving rise to the complaint) in a landlord/tenant relationship with a member landlord. This includes people who have a lease, tenancy, licence to occupy, service agreement or other arrangement to occupy premises owned or managed by a member landlord.
The landlord has confirmed that the resident is the freeholder of the property, and that it has no role in maintenance or repairs within the property boundary. As the resident is the freeholder of the property, and therefore does not have a landlord-tenant relationship, in line with paragraph 25(a) of the scheme this complaint is not one the Ombudsman can investigate or assist with.
This is a structured summary of a published determination. The official decision is the authoritative record. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.