Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about damage to property. It would be reasonable to expect X to use their alternative legal remedy to pursue a claim for damages through the courts. Additionally, we will not investigate a complaint about missed bin collections. This is because the Council has already remedied any injustice to X caused by its service failure, and there are no wider public interest issues remaining to justify an investigation.

The complaint

1. X complains that Council contractors caused damage to their property. They also complain the Council failed to collect their waste for six weeks and this caused them disruption and hygiene concerns. They say the Council’s investigation of their complaint was delayed and inadequate.
2. X wants compensation for the costs of replacement to damaged property and for poor service delivery.

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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. Negligence claims and interpreting the law around civil liability are generally best decided by a court where the Council does not accept insurance liability. Only a court can decide whether the Council is liable to pay damages for a person’s loss.
5. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we are satisfied with the actions an organisation has taken or proposes to take. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(7), as amended)
6. We will not usually investigate complaint handling if we are not investigating the rest of the complaint. This is because there is not usually enough injustice to justify us doing so. We collect information about particularly poor complaint handling practice and report this back to organisations. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), section 34B(8))

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
8. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

9. I will not investigate X’s complaint about the actions of the Council’s contractors, or the Council’s consideration of a complaint about that matter. This because X has an alternative legal remedy, to pursue a claim for damages through the courts where liability is declined. Only the courts can achieve the outcome X is looking for, which is to say the Council is liable, so it is reasonable to expect them to use this remedy.  
10. X was also unhappy the Council repeatedly failed to collect their waste for a period of six weeks. The Council investigated this part of X’s complaint. It accepted there had been a service failure and acknowledged the impact that had on X. It explained why it had happened and apologised. It upheld their complaints and took corrective action to put things right.
11. These actions are appropriate and I will not investigate X’s complaint because any injustice to X caused by the Council’s service failure has now been remedied.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate X’s complaint because for part of it there is an alternative legal remedy and for the other part the Council has remedied X’s injustice and there are no wider public interest issues remaining to justify an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman