Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s roadworks damaging his property, and noise and vehicle access issues. His complaint is a claim of private property damage only an insurer or a court can determine. It is not unreasonable for Mr X to pursue this route to get the outcome he seeks, an outcome we cannot achieve. The noise and access issues are premature as they were not part of Mr X’s Council complaint. It would not have been unreasonable for him to complain about them to the Council first, and any future complaint to us about the same issues would be late.

The complaint

1. Mr X lives where the Council did roadworks last year. He complains:
1. the roadworks caused vibrations at his property;
2. the roadworks caused loud noise;
3. staff doing the works parked their vehicles in front of his house.
2. Mr X says the vibrations caused deep cracks in rooms at the front of his house. He says he experienced loud roadworks for a long time and the workers’ vehicles caused him problems accessing his driveway. Mr X wants financial compensation so he can fix the cracks in his house.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
4. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
5. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint unless we are satisfied the organisation knows about the complaint and has had an opportunity to investigate and reply. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to notify the organisation of the complaint and give it an opportunity to investigate and reply. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(5), section 34(B)6)
6. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information from Mr X, and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. Mr X’s core complaint is a claim that the Council’s roadworks caused vibration damage to his property. The Council disputes this and denies responsibility. Mr X’s complaint amounts to a legal liability dispute between him and the Council which we cannot resolve. We cannot determine the Council bears responsibility for the reported damage and must pay to fix it. Only an insurer or the courts can determine questions of legal liability for property damage. Mr X may make a claim to the Council’s insurers to seek a remedy for the damage. If the Council’s insurer refuses the claim, he would need to put his claim before the courts. It would not be unreasonable for Mr X to take this issue to court because it is the only body which has the standing and authority to decide legal liability questions and disputes of this kind.
9. The outcome Mr X wants is for the Council to pay to fix his property. It follows from the above that this is an outcome achievable from a successful insurance or legal claim of liability against the Council, not an investigation by us. If we did investigate, we could not order the Council to provide this outcome, unlike the courts’ rulings which are legally binding on the parties involved. That we could not achieve the outcomes Mr X seeks from his complaint is a further reason why we will not investigate.
10. Mr X’s complaint to us raises the noise from the roadworks, and access issues with his driveway which he says were caused by workers’ vehicles. These are issues which did not form part of Mr X’s complaint to the Council in 2024. While that complaint mentioned loud works, it did so in the context of the core complaint about those works causing vibration to his property. In later correspondence, Mr X does not pursue either the noise or vehicle access issues with the Council. He has not sought a remedy connected to either issue I his complaint to us, only for his claim of property damage from vibrations.
11. We cannot normally investigate a complaint unless a council knows about it and has had an opportunity to investigate and reply. We may investigate such a ‘premature’ complaint if we consider it would be unreasonable to refer the complaint to a council for it to investigate and reply. It would not have been unreasonable for Mr X to raise the noise and access issues as part of his Council complaint in 2024. He may wish to do so now. But if he does so and does not agree with the Council’s final reply, it is likely we would not investigate if we then receive a new complaint about these issues. This is because any such complaint to us would be late and there would have to be good grounds for us to use our discretion to investigate it.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because:
• it would not be unreasonable for him to pursue the remedy he seeks by making a claim to the Council’s insurers and the courts if required; and
• we cannot achieve the outcome he seeks; and
• it would not have been unreasonable for him to have raised his noise and vehicle access complaints with the Council first; and
• any complaint to us about those premature issues would be late.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman