Summary: We will not investigate Mr B’s complaint that the Council wrongly approved defective building work which did not meet the building regulations. This is because we cannot achieve the outcome Mr B wants.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will refer to as Mr B, complains the Council wrongly approved defective building work undertaken in 2012 by the former owner of his property. Mr B says his property has been damaged because the building work was not done properly. Mr B would like the Council to take responsibility for the actions of its building control officers and pay compensation for the costs he will have to pay to fix the structure of the building.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start an investigation if we decide:

• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

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

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Mr B.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. We will not investigate this complaint.
6. The primary responsibility for building work and compliance with the building regulations rests with building owners and builders. The courts have held that local authorities are not responsible for the costs of putting right defective building work which does not meet the building regulations.
7. This means we would not ask the Council to make a payment which the courts have decided local authorities are not required to pay. So, an investigation would not achieve the outcome Mr B wants.
8. In addition, we would not normally investigate a building control complaint about building work undertaken before a person has purchased a property. This is because we would expect a person buying a property to arrange a full survey and carry out all reasonable checks and searches before purchase. Any fault by building control officers would not have caused an injustice if the buyer decides not to proceed with the purchase, or negotiates a lower purchase price to reflect any concerns about the property.
9. Also, if defects only become apparent after purchase, a remedy may exist against either the person who carried out the survey or the previous owner of the property.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr B’s complaint because we cannot achieve the outcome he wants.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman