Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of matters relating to a house owned by Mr X’s father. This is because past events fall outside our jurisdiction due to the passage of time and there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council to warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council has not come back to him for over six months about matters concerning the inspection of a property belonging to his father and that he has been told he must provide the necessary documentation before the Council will share information with him about his father’s property.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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)
4. 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:

• 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, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council, including its response to the complaint.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Mr X has complained to the Council about various matters relating to a property owned by his father. Without the necessary authorisation from his father that Mr X is acting for him, the Council has correctly told Mr X that it cannot release documents or information to him. There is no evidence to suggest fault with the Council’s decision here.
8. With regard to the issue of a visit which took place by a Council officer to Mr X’s father’s property around the time of the Covid outbreak, this matter is too far in the past for it to be investigated now. The restriction highlighted at paragraph 3 applies and as Mr X could have complained to us sooner about the matter, we will not investigate it now.
9. The Council has confirmed that it has responded to Mr X’s contact but that as he does not have an email address or a voicemail facility, it cannot leave a message when it has called. The Council has told Mr X he does not have to use email and that can make contact by phone or post. This is not a matter we will pursue further as there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because past events fall outside our jurisdiction due to the passage of time and there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council to warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman