Summary: Mr X complains of harassment by Council officers investigating planning enforcement complaints. We will not investigate this complaint because part of the complaint is out of time and there is no evidence of fault by the Council causing significant injustice in the remaining complaint.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains of harassment by Council officers investigating planning enforcement complaints.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
3. The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
6. The complainant had the opportunity to comment on a draft of this decision.

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My assessment

7. Mr X says that the Council has unreasonably acted upon malicious complaints about their property.
8. The Council has visited to investigate whether or not their property is a House of Multiple Occupation. The first was in November 2015, followed by a visits in 2016 (twice), March 2020 and October 2021.
9. I see no reason why a complaint could not have been made to this office within 12 months of the visits and so I consider that complaints prior to October 2021 are out of jurisdiction.
10. An officer visited the Council in October 2021 to clarify whether the property had been converted into flats and about the use of an outbuilding.
11. I appreciate that Mr X is frustrated by the Council’s visits over the years but I am not persuaded that the Council could not make visits to clarify the planning status, nor that the injustice suffered is so great as to warrant investigation.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate this complaint because there is no evidence of fault causing significant injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman