Summary: Mr X complains about the Council’s Building Inspection cost. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint because there is no evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about the Council’s Building Inspection cost.

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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.

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

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How I considered this complaint

3. I have considered the comments of the complainant and the Council and the complainant has had an opportunity to comment on the draft decision.,

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What I found

4. Mr X made an application for a Building Regulations Inspection from a private company. The company went into liquidation before the final completion certificate would be issued.
5. Mr X asked the Council if it could take over the Inspection. The Council said it could do this but would charge £951 as it would need to re-check the work. Mr X says that this was too high a charge as all the work had been checked previously.
6. The Council has agreed to reduce the sum if less work was involved by the issue of the certificate. Mr X has now made a Building Inspection application to the Council.
7. I am not persuaded that there is evidence of fault by the Council. It has given an estimation of the costs to Mr X which was a professional judgement. The Council has agreed to reduce the fee if the work was not as great as predicted.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman