Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s approval of a building regulations application. We are unlikely to find fault in the Council’s actions as breaches of party wall agreements are civil matters between neighbours and it is not for the Council to intervene.

The complaint

1. The complainant, I shall call Mrs X, complains the Council approved her neighbour’s building regulations application. She says this is despite the neighbour installing pipe work over her property which causes flooding.
2. Mrs X wants the neighbour to remove the pipe from her garage roof and ensure rainwater drains safely to a soakaway.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants

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

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mrs X and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. 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.
7. In this case, the Council received a building regulation application for Mrs X’s neighbour’s garage conversion. The Council says it visited the site, inspected the works, and issued a completion certificate.
8. Mrs X says the neighbour has installed guttering which discharges water over her property causing flooding. She references sections of the party wall agreement which says:

“Ensure that no part of the new single storey side extension (including gutter, brackets, copings, foundations, extractor vents or anything else) shall project- discharge onto/over the adjoining owners land.”

9. However, primary responsibility for 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. It cannot get involved with Mrs X’s concerns about a breach of the party wall agreement. The Council has told Mrs X this is a private civil matter between her and the neighbour.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because we are unlikely to find fault in the Council’s actions and we cannot require the neighbour to remove the pipe work from her garage roof.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman