Rykneld Homes Limited — case 202318634

REPORT COMPLAINT 202318634 Rykneld Homes Limited 6 June 2025 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 assessment of the resident’s application to join the housing register. Determination (jurisdictional decision) When a resident refers a complaint to this Service, we must consider all the circumstances of the case as there are sometimes reasons why we will not investigate. After carefully considering all the evidence we have determined that the complaint, as set out above, is not within our jurisdiction. Summary of events The resident applied to join the local authority’s housing register on 5 July 2023, via its choice-based lettings scheme under Part 6 of the Housing Act 1996 (the Act).

The landlord assessed his application under the Act on the authority’s behalf. It declined his application due to outstanding rent arrears from a former local authority tenancy. The resident disputed this and complained to the landlord on 18 October 2023. It said its decision was correct and did not uphold his complaint. He asked it to escalate his complaint on 27 November 2023, but it did not change its decision. The resident referred his complaint to us on 4 January 2024 as he was not satisfied with the landlord’s final response.

Reasons Paragraph 41.d of the Scheme states that we cannot consider complaints which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion concern matters in respect of local housing authorities in England which do not relate to their provision or management of social housing, or the management of dwellings which they own and let on a long lease. The landlord manages the housing register acting in the capacity of the local authority, under the Act. This forms part of the authority’s wider housing activities, as opposed to activities under its relationship as a landlord to its tenants or leaseholders.

Therefore, this complaint does not relate to the provision or management of social housing in the context of paragraph 41.d. of the Scheme, and we are unable to investigate this complaint further. We did not identify this when the resident first contacted us, as the arrangement was not immediately obvious. He has explained that he and the landlord have resolved the matter since, however he has the option to contact the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman to request that it investigate the complaint.