Summary: Mr X complains about the Council’s handling of building control matters dating back to 2015 and the way it has dealt with his complaints. The Ombudsman will not investigate the complaint because events from 2015 happened too long ago to be investigated now and an investigation is unlikely to lead to a different outcome.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to as Mr X, says since 2015 the Council has failed to adequately respond to his concerns about his neighbour’s extension which has caused sound transference, drainage problems and party wall issues. He says the Council’s Building Control Service wrongly signed off the extension without proper checks and that as a result he has suffered illness, distress and harassment from his neighbour for which he should be compensated.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. 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)
4. 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)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

5. In considering the complaint I reviewed the information provided by Mr X. I gave him the opportunity to comment on my draft decision and considered what he said.

Back to top

What I found

6. In 2015 Mr X’s next-door neighbour constructed a rear extension. Since this time Mr X says problems of sound transference between the properties and drainage problems arose.
7. Having initially tried to resolve matters with his neighbour, Mr X made a formal complaint to the Council in 2019 and requested a Stage 2 response under the Council’s complaints procedure a year later.
8. Mr X contends that the Council failed to carry out the required building control inspections on his neighbour’s extension and wrongly signed off on it. In addressing Mr X’s complaint, the Council told him the extension complied with the relevant regulations and that it could not require his neighbour to take any action even if it were demonstrated that the extension had made sound transference between the properties worse.

Assessment

9. The restriction highlighted at paragraph 3 of this statement applies to Mr X’s complaint. The events at the heart of it took place five years ago and I see no grounds which warrant exercising discretion to investigate them now.
10. Moreover, primary responsibility for building works and compliance with the Building Regulations rests with the building owner and builders and while Council officers normally visit at various stages, they are not there for the great majority of work and do not act as site manager. A completion certificate issued by the Council is not a guarantee that all works have been done to the required standard.
11. Mr X says harassment from his neighbour has led to police involvement and that party wall issues are currently being pursued with his solicitors. While both matters clearly cause Mr X considerable distress, they are not matters which the Council would become involved in.
12. Mr X has complained about the way the Council has more recently dealt with his complaint but we do not generally investigate complaints about complaint handling when we are not investigating the substantive issue.
13. In responding to my draft decision, Mr X says he was trying to resolve matters himself before he formally complained to the Council in January 2019 but this action itself was around four years after the completion of the building works.
14. Even if Mr X had complained to the Ombudsman in 2015 about the performance of the Council’s Building Control Service, it is the case that we will often decide not to investigate such complaints because we cannot recommend the remedy the complainant wants or achieve a meaningful outcome for them. Councils are not directly liable for poor or unlawful building work and those affected by such work can use the civil law to pursue their claims.

Back to top

Final decision

15. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because events from 2015 happened too long ago to be investigated now and an investigation is unlikely to lead to a different outcome.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman