Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with the complainant’s concerns about her neighbour’s extension. This is because we are unlikely to find fault.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mrs X, has complained about how the Council has dealt with her concerns about her neighbour’s extension. Mrs X says the extension does not have planning permission and impacts her property. She believes the extension may be unsafe and says the Council should not have issued a completion certificate for the works.

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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 or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Mrs X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

4. Most building work will require building regulation approval. The regulations will set the standards for design, construction and ensure the health and safety of the people living in or around the building.
5. In this case, the Council received a building regulation application for Mrs X’s neighbour’s extension. The Council visited the site, inspected the works, and issued a completion certificate. Mrs X says the extension may be unsafe and impacts her property. However, primary responsibility for the building works rests with those that commission it and those who carry it out, not the Council. It is also not the Council’s role to protect neighbouring properties from damage caused by building works and it cannot get involved with Mrs X’s concerns about the extension encroaching on her property. These will be private civil matters between Mrs X and her neighbour.
6. Mrs X says the extension does not have planning permission. But the Council has explained why it considers the works permitted development and therefore a planning application was not needed. I understand Mrs X disagrees, but the Council was entitled to use its professional judgement to decide the works were permitted development and the Ombudsman cannot question this decision unless it was tainted by fault.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because we are unlikely to find fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman