Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint that the Council wrongly issued a completion certificate for her neighbour’s building work and will not now take action against them for damaging her property. This is because it is unlikely we could achieve any worthwhile outcome for her.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mrs X, complains the Council wrongly signed off her neighbour’s building work as compliant with the Building Regulations. However the work has resulted in damage to her property which the neighbour/builder have so far refused to put right.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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, or
• the fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• it is unlikely we could add to any previous investigation by the Council, or
• it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

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

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How I considered this complaint

3. I reviewed Mrs X’s complaint and her representative’s (Mr Y’s) correspondence with the Council. I shared my draft decision with Mr Y and considered his comments.

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What I found

4. Mrs X’s neighbour, Mr Z, applied for planning permission from the Council to develop his property. The Council approved the application and Mr Z’s builder started work before he had served notice on Mrs X under the Party Wall Act 1996 (as amended). The builder then removed part of the shared drainage infrastructure. Mrs X says there is water collecting at the base of her property and at the base of Mr Z’s new extension. She is unhappy the Council has not taken any action against Mr Z or his builder and that it has issued a completion certificate confirming the work complies with the Building Regulations.

5. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. Building Regulations provide a means for the local authority to maintain building standards in general, rather than imposing a duty to maintain standards in each particular case.
6. When carrying out their functions under the Building Regulations, local authorities may visit at various stages but they are not present for the great majority of the project and do not act as a ‘clerk of works’. On request and when satisfied after taking 'all reasonable steps' that the Regulations have been met, they must issue a completion certificate.
7. A completion certificate for building work is not a guarantee that all works are completed to the necessary standard. All the certificate can and does state is that, as far as the Council could tell at the time, building work complied with the building regulations.

8. The Council does not assume liability for substandard work carried out by third parties and the fact is has issued a completion certificate does not directly affect Mrs X. Mrs X’s injustice stems from the building work carried out by Mr Z/his builder and if this has caused damage to her property she would need to take the matter up with them.
9. The Council has tried to help Mrs X informally but it has explained it cannot do anything more for her. We cannot hold it responsible for the actions of Mr Z’s builder or say it must take further action to put right the damage to Mrs X’s property; we could not therefore achieve any worthwhile outcome for Mrs X by investigating her complaint.

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Final decision

10. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because it is unlikely we could achieve any worthwhile outcome for Mrs X.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman