Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of a building control matter. This is because the issue does not cause Mr X significant injustice and the underlying dispute over compliance with the Building Regulations is a matter for the Secretary of State.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains the Council issued conditional approval for plans he drew up for his son’s extension but has refused to issue a completion certificate for the work as it does not consider it compliant with the Building Regulations.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone can appeal to a government minister. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to appeal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(b))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Although Mr X drew up the designs for his son’s extension he is not significantly affected by the Council’s refusal to issue a completion certificate for the work; any injustice from this decision primarily affects Mr X’s son rather than Mr X himself.
6. However, even if Mr X’s son complained we could not decide whether the building work complies with the Building Regulations as Mr X believes it might. We cannot therefore say the additional work requested by the Council is not required. The process for challenging the Council’s position would be to apply for determination of the issue by the Secretary of State and it would be reasonable to expect Mr X or his son to use it.
7. In the event the Secretary of State agrees the additional work is required Mr X’s son may complain about the Council’s failure to identify the issue at an earlier stage; we will consider whether to investigate this complaint. As part of our assessment we would need to consider what injustice results from the issue if the additional work was always needed to comply with the Regulations. We only investigate the most serious complaints so it is unlikely we would investigate unless it could be shown the Council’s actions caused Mr X’s son significant injustice.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because the matter does not cause Mr X significant injustice and the substantive issue concerns a dispute over compliance with the Building Regulations which it would be reasonable for Mr X or his son to take to the Secretary of State.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman