Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the failure of the Council to fit electronic fire doors in the building where Mrs X lives. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant investigation.

The complaint

1. Mrs X said the Council was at fault because it has failed to provide automatic fire doors in the corridors of the block of flats in which she lives.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

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

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mrs X lives in a block of flats whose corridors do not have automatic opening fire doors. She uses a motorised wheelchair and finds it very difficult to open the doors. She says this has gone on for four years and the solutions the Council has suggested are not sufficient.
6. The Council’s response to Mrs X stated it could not fit automatic doors for the technical reason that the block had no electronic fire detection system to which it could connect the doors. It said that such a system could only be fitted by agreement with the individual leaseholders of the flats, who would have to contribute to the cost. It offered to seek a personal assistant to help Mrs X, or to help her move in due course. It said she was aware when she had her kitchen adapted via a disabled facilities grant (DFG) that there was no technical solution to the fire door problem, and that she was signing to remain for three years.
7. Based on what Mrs X said, the problem with the doors goes back four years. I therefore consider it more likely than not that she was aware that there was a technical problem when she signed for the DFG recently. I consider it would have been reasonable for her to be aware at that time that the Council could not simply fit an electronic fire detection system in a block of flats owned by leaseholders at their cost without their agreement.
8. The solutions suggested by the Council are not likely to resolve the problem by giving Mrs X the ability to come and go as she pleases immediately without that aid of others. But it is not the Council’s fault that there is a technical issue with the doors that could only be resolved with the permission of leaseholders. And it was reasonable for Mrs X to be aware of this issue when she signed for the DFG.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman