London Borough of Ealing (20 000 230)
Category : Environment and regulation > Trading standards
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 14 Jul 2020
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: Ms X complained that the Council’s Trading Standards Department will not take legal action against a builder she employed. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint because there is no evidence of fault by the Council.
The complaint
- Ms X complained that the Council’s Trading Standards Department will not take legal action against a builder she employed.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe it is unlikely we would find fault. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I have considered the comments of the complainant and the Council and the complainant was given an opportunity to comment on the draft decision.
What I found
- Ms X employed Builder A to carry out works to her gardens. She says the work was poor and no guarantee was provided. She asked the Council to prosecute Builder A.
- The Council says that the builder was registered in a different authority area and so it had no jurisdiction to take action. A Council officer visited Ms X and noted that some further remedial work had been carried out. The Council took the view that no criminal prosecution was merited because civil action was available to Ms X, and there was no likelihood of proving criminal action by the Builder A.
- I am satisfied that the Council properly investigated whether a prosecution was appropriate in this case. Further, any criminal prosecution would not result in compensation for Ms X, this was a matter for private legal action.
- Ms X's dissatisfaction lies with the merits of the Council's decision but, in the absence of fault, the Ombudsman cannot criticise the Council's decision.
Final decision
- I do not intend to investigate this complaint because there is no evidence of fault by the Council.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman