Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint that the Council wrongly signed off building work to her property that did not comply with the Building Regulations. This is because we cannot hold the Council responsible for the substandard work or say it must pay for the cost of repairs.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Ms X, complains the Council’s building control partnership signed off building work carried out by the previous owner of her property several years ago which does not comply with the Building Regulations. Ms X has since purchased the property and discovered a leak in the roof. She believes the Council should not have issued a completion certificate for the work and holds it responsible for costs of more than £6,500 to put right a defect in the construction of the roof.

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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 do not start an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Ms X’s representative, Ms Y, and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Building Regulations set standards for the design and construction of buildings to ensure the health and safety of people in and about those buildings.
6. When carrying out their functions, local authorities may visit at various stages but the number and timings of any inspections vary by local authority and type of development. Local authorities are not present for the great majority of the project and do not act as a ‘clerk of works’. On request and when satisfied after taking 'all reasonable steps' that the Regulations have been met, they must issue a completion certificate.
7. A completion certificate for building work is not a guarantee that all works are completed to the necessary standard. All the certificate can and does state is that as far as the Council could tell at the time, based on the professional judgement of the officer who inspected it, the building work complied with the Building Regulations. This is not a guarantee that all works have been done to the required standard.
8. Where a local authority issues a completion certificate for work which is later found not to comply with the Building Regulations, the courts have decided the local authority does not take on liability for the substandard work; this remains with the builder and those who commissioned the work. We cannot therefore hold the Council responsible for the defect in Ms X's roof or say it must reimburse her for the cost of putting this right.
9. We would also expect any person purchasing a property to have a full survey before completing the purchase. If a defect is later discovered in work completed before the purchase we would expect the building owner to have a remedy against either the person who carried out the survey, the previous owner or the contractor who carried out the work.
10. Ms X is also unhappy with the way the Council dealt with her complaint. But it is not a good use of public resources to look at the Council’s complaints handling if we are not going to look at the substantive issue complained about. We will not therefore investigate this issue separately.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because we cannot hold the Council responsible for the substandard work carried out by the previous owner. We cannot therefore achieve any worthwhile outcome for Ms X by investigating the matter further.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman