Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of matters relating to the flooding of the complainants’ property from a shared drainage system. This is because an investigation is unlikely to add to that already carried out by the Council or lead to a different outcome.

The complaint

1. The complainants, who I refer to as Mr and Mrs X, complain about the Council’s handling of matters since 2021 relating to the flooding of their property from a shared drainage system. They say they made a complaint in September 2022 but received no notification about its outcome.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate 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 continue an investigation if we decide:

• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

3. 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)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainants, including the Council’s response to their complaint.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

6. Mr and Mrs X complained to the Council in 2023 about the flooding of their property in 2021 and 2022 and that the complaint they had submitted in 2022 had not been replied to.
7. The Council explained events from 2021 were too long in the past for it to investigate them now but it addressed the issues raised by the complainants in relation to events from 2022. It explained it had started its consideration of the 2022 complaint but had stopped and closed the case following a telephone conversation with Mr X when he stated he did not want to be contacted again about it.
8. With regard to its handling of the flooding of Mr and Mrs X’s property in 2022, it did not uphold their complaint and it told them it was not able to come to a view about the behaviour of an officer where conflicting accounts of what had occurred existed.
9. The flooding issue was resolved by the organisation responsible for the shared drainage system, the utility company, and the Council advised it had worked with the company. It told Mr and Mrs X that any further problems should be reported directly to the company.
10. We do not investigate every complaint we receive and while Mr and Mrs X may not be satisfied with the outcome of their complaint to the Council, an investigation is unlikely to add to that already carried out by the Council or lead to a different outcome.
11. The time restriction highlighted at paragraph 3 applies to the events of 2021 which fall outside our jurisdiction due to the passage of time as we would reasonably have expected the complainants to have made a complaint to us about them sooner.

Back to top

Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mr and Mrs X’s complaint because an investigation is unlikely to add to that already carried out by the Council or lead to a different outcome.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman