Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s actions conducted under the Building Regulations. We could not achieve any worthwhile outcome by investigating.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about the Council’s actions when exercising its building control function at his newly built home. He says the Council failed to act when there is evidence the design had not been followed.

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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 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 continue an investigation if we decide there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Mr X 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 building control 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 most 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.
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.
9. The Council says the lack of an extensive warranty and decision to end the project manager role allowed the builder of the property to deviate from the approved design. They also made changes which the building control service were unaware of. It also says the installers of the heat source air pump have not commissioned the system correctly.
10. It is open to Mr X to take legal advice on how he may make a claim against the builder who conducted the allegedly defective work.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman