Summary: There was delay by the Council in responding to a formal complaint. The Council will apologise and make a £300 time and trouble payment.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about delay by the Council in providing a response to his formal complaint about works done under a disabled facilities grant (DFG).

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What I have investigated

2. I have investigated the delay in the Council’s complaint process.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. If we are satisfied with a council’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I have considered correspondence between Mr X and the Council.

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What I found

6. In January 2019 Mr X raised concerns about works done under a DFG. On 1 February 2019 Mr X asked the Council to treat his concerns as a formal complaint.
7. The Council inspected the works on 1 March 2019.
8. The Council provided a formal response to the complaint on 19 May 2019.
9. Mr X complained to the Ombudsman on 3 June 2019 that he had not had a full response to his complaint.
10. The Council said following the stage one response Mr X had asked to meet the Council and this meeting took place on 1 July 2019. At the meeting it was agreed an engineer would attend again to assess the works. Mr X complained at the meeting about the time taken to provide a stage one response.
11. On 31 July the Council told us it acknowledges there was delay in responding to Mr X’s stage one complaint and it would like to apologise to Mr X and offer him £300 to acknowledge his time and trouble pursuing the complaint.
12. Mr X told us he was satisfied his complaint about delay was now resolved by this offer.
13. Mr X said he had not yet raised a formal complaint about the content of the Council’s stage one response and did not want the Ombudsman to consider this aspect of his complaint at this time. Mr X and the Council will continue to consider his concerns about the works.
14. If Mr X remains dissatisfied with the Council’s response to his concerns about the works he can bring that matter back to the Ombudsman at a later date.

Agreed action

15. Within four weeks of my final decision the Council will:
• Apologise to Mr X for the delay
• Pay Mr X £300 time and trouble payment
• Provide evidence to the Ombudsman the above steps have been completed.

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Final decision

16. There was delay by the Council in responding to a formal complaint. This is fault. I have completed my investigation because I am satisfied the apology and time and trouble payment offered is a satisfactory remedy for the injustice caused.

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Parts of the complaint that I did not investigate

17. I have not investigated the substantive complaint about the scheme of works completed under the DFG. Mr X and the Council are continuing to consider this under the Council’s own complaint procedure.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman