Summary: Mr X complained about the Council’s poor communication, and delays with how it handled his building regulation case and how it dealt with his complaint about its staff conduct. The Council was not at fault in how it carried out its building control duties and in how it dealt with Mr X’s complaint about its staff conduct.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained about the Council’s poor communication and its delays with how it handled his building regulation case. In particular its delays with providing him with the requirements of the regulations needed to obtain a completion certificate.
2. Mr X also said the Council did not properly deal with his complaint about the conduct of two of its building control staff.
3. Mr X said the matter caused significant distress to him and it affected and worsened his health. Mr X also said the matter caused significant financial loss and hardship to his business.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
5. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
6. We cannot investigate a complaint if it is about a personnel issue. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5a, paragraph 4, as amended)
7. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

Back to top

What I have and have not investigated

8. I have investigated matters from September 2023 to September 2024. This period covers 12 months from when Mr X complained to the Ombudsman in September 2024.
9. I have not exercised discretion to investigate matters prior to September 2023. This is because they are late complaints and there are no good reasons to investigate them now. Mr X was aware of the matter at the time, and I consider he could have complained to the Ombudsman sooner.

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

10. I considered evidence provided by Mr X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
11. Mr X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments before making a final decision.

Back to top

What I found

Building Control

12. Councils have a very important role in ensuring buildings are safe for people to use. Their duty is to protect the public, rather than the interests of private individuals. They have extensive powers to protect the public, ranging from checking building works for compliance with Building Regulations, and requiring or carrying out emergency works to make buildings safe.
13. Most building work requires building regulation approval by a building control body. Building regulations set out requirements and guidance that builders and building owners are required to follow. The purpose of the regulations is to make sure buildings are safe for those that use them or live around them.
14. A certificate of building regulations approval can be granted by councils acting as building control authorities, or by independent ‘approved’ inspectors. There are three ways a building owner can get building regulations approval. These are:

• Full plans application - the owner or their agent submits plans. The plans are checked for compliance with building regulations. The Council will issue a completion certificate within eight weeks which states the work is compliant with the Regulations. If the work is not compliant, the Council will issue advice on how it can be made so.
• Building notice application - the owner or their agent informs the council or approved inspector of their intention to begin building work. The inspector will visit the site at various stages of the work to check compliance with building regulations.
• Regularisation application - Compliance with Regulations can be certified after the work is done, but only by a Council Building Control service.

15. Regulation 38 of the Building Regulations is a requirement to provide fire safety information to the ‘Responsible Person’ at the completion of a project or where the building or extension is first occupied.

Background

16. In 2019, the fire authority raised concerns about the provision of fire water to Mr X’s new business building. Mr X said the Council did not inform him of the fire authority concerns until late 2021 when the building was structurally complete and ready to open for business.
17. In early 2022, Mr X sent a proposal and fire risk assessment to the Council’s building control officer to address the fire authority concerns.
18. In April 2022, the Council accepted Mr X’s proposal, and it issued a partial completion certificate for the ground floor level only. This was because the public was not allowed access to the first and second floors of Mr X’s new building which were under construction and still required building control site approval.
19. In April 2022, the ground floor of Mr X’s business building opened and operated for a year before further work began on the first and second floors of the building.

Key events

2023

20. In October, Mr X spoke with the building control officer (Officer 1) allocated to his case and Mr X said a site visit was agreed to take place so a final completion certificate could be issued for his business building.
21. In mid-October, the Council conducted a site visit to inspect the first and second floors of Mr X’s business building. Mr X said it was a different officer who conducted the visit. Mr X said the visiting officer told him he was happy with the building works, and that he would issue a completion certificate once he spoke with his manager.
22. The officer’s report showed there were outstanding issues which needed to be addressed before a completion certificate could be issued. These included some layout changes which had been made to the building, communication facilities and fire safety issues. The visiting officer liaised with the building control manager who confirmed the identified issues/changes made to the building site had not been agreed with Mr X. It was agreed Mr X needed to provide the Council with additional information to show all building regulations had been satisfied before a completion notice could be issued.
23. The following day, the visiting officer sent an email to Mr X about the issues identified during the site visit. The officer asked Mr X to provide the Council with a copy of the site’s updated layout/changes and its new fire risk assessment (FRA).
24. The building control manager contacted Mr X and discussed the outstanding issues and the requirement for a Regulation 38 notification in relation to fire safety information. The manager reiterated the additional information required which included a re-written FRA for the building site to ensure it complied with relevant legislation.
25. Mr X sent a copy of the FRA and the site’s layout which he had previously provided in 2022 to the Council. Mr X asked the Council when it would issue a completion certificate for his business building.
26. Between November and December, Mr X and the Council exchange several correspondence about the outstanding building control requirements.
27. In November, Mr X sent additional information to the Council. This were the newly installed certificated emergency voice communication system and a new FRA report which was produced by an independent fire prevention and management expert. Mr X said the new FRA document covered all the issues raised by the Council.
28. The building control manager acknowledged the additional information Mr X provided but informed him the following information remained outstanding:

• a comprehensive set of ‘as built’ fire safety drawings for the project which should reflect all the relevant information on a suitably scaled drawing indicating all the fire safety information associated with the document.
• relevant documentation and a written statement that Regulation 38 had been satisfied in full, under the description of a ‘Complex Building’ in line with the Regulation.

29. The Council advised Mr X to seek professional assistance to support him with providing the outstanding information/requirements. The Council said once Mr X submitted the above information, it would review the information and arrange a completion site visit. The Council said if the building was then confirmed to have been constructed in line with the Building Regulations, it would issue a completion certificate for Mr X’s business building.
30. In December, Mr X submitted some drawings and Regulation 38 notice with supporting documents to the Council. The Council told Mr X that majority of the information was repetition of what he had previously submitted to it. The Council said some of the information missing on the drawings included travel distances, door exit widths, location of emergency lighting in relation to the floor layout. It reiterated that before a Regulation 38 notice could be served, all the relevant information must be submitted. The Council again advised Mr X to seek professional support with progressing the work because non-compliance with building regulation might lead to prosecution. Mr X said he found the Council’s correspondence threatening.
31. Mr X informed his architect about the outstanding information requested by the Council.

2024

32. In February, Mr X’s architect sent the requested additional information to the Council which included a site plan, FRA report, Regulation 38 report and updated drawings/layouts of the ground, first and second floors of the building.
33. In March, the Council conducted a site visit. The Council confirmed the additional information provided by the architect and Mr X’s business building met the required regulation standards. The Council issued Mr X with a completion certificate for his business building.
34. Mr X made a formal complaint to the Council about how the building control manager and Officer 1 handled his case. In particular about the poor communication and delays with providing him with the requirements of the regulations needed to obtain a completion certificate for his business building. Mr X said although the drawings submitted by his architect to the Council in February were updated, Mr X said the other documents his architect submitted were the same as those he had submitted to the Council in November 2023. Mr X said the matter could have therefore been promptly resolved in December 2023.
35. In its stage 1 and 2 responses to Mr X’s complaint, the Council:

• said it interviewed the building control manager and reviewed the correspondence exchanged between the manager and Mr X when it dealt with Mr X’s complaint.
• said there was no written record of the interviews it held with its staff about Mr X’s complaint.
• found no fault with how Officer 1 and the building control manager dealt with Mr X’s case and how they communicated with him during the building process. The Council said it was satisfied both staff followed the correct procedures in dealing with Mr X’s case.
• acknowledged the time it took to resolve the outstanding issues and to grant Mr X the completion certificate. But the Council said the delay was because Mr X did not initially provide it with sufficient information and the work carried out on the building site was not acceptable by its building control team.
• said the information submitted by Mr X’s architect was amended and/or supplemented with the required detail needed to satisfy compliance with building regulations.
• said in relation to the building control manager’s email about the possibility of a prosecution due to potential non-compliance with regulations, the Council said it did not consider the tone of the email threatening or offensive.

36. Mr X remained dissatisfied with the Council’s responses and how it dealt with his complaint. Mr X made a complaint to the Ombudsman.
37. In response to our enquiries, the Council:
1. confirmed the drawings and additional information provided by Mr X’s architect in February 2024 were different from the information Mr X submitted to the Council prior to that date. For example, it said the additional information provided by the architect included updated drawings for all floor plans, a site plan, site location plan and elevation drawings.
2. said in relation to Mr X’s complaint about its staff conduct, it only met with the building control manager to establish the facts of Mr X’s case. The Council said it did not consider it was necessary to also meet with Officer 1 because the manager was aware of all the facts relating to Mr X’s case.
3. said because the meeting with the building control manager was to establish the facts relating to Mr X’s case and to issue its complaint responses, there was no need to take minutes of the meeting.

Analysis

38. The Council advised Mr X on several occasions of what information he was required to submit to meet building regulations before the Council could issue him with a completion certificate for his business building. I therefore find no fault by the Council with how it dealt with and communicated with Mr X in relation to his building regulation case.
39. Also, I find when the Council received the required additional information in February 2024, it reviewed the information provided, and it conducted a site inspection of Mr X’s business building. Once the Council was satisfied the building regulations had been met, it issued Mr X with a completion certificate for his business building in March 2024. These were not faults and I find the Council acted promptly in dealing with Mr X’s case after it received the additional information it had requested.
40. I cannot question the Council’s decision making, its professional opinion and its decision to request additional information which complied with building regulations before it granted Mr X a completion certificate. These are decisions the Council is entitled to make. The Ombudsman is not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed these processes correctly, we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong regardless of how much a complainant disagrees with the decision. In this case, I find the Council followed the correct process in discharging its building control function in Mr X’s case.
41. The Council considered Mr X’s concerns about how its staff dealt with his building control case, and it found Officer 1 and the building control manager followed the correct procedures in dealing with Mr X’s case. The Council spoke with the manager who had an oversight and was fully aware of the case. I do not consider the Council had to keep minutes or detailed records of the meeting with the manager. This is because I find the purpose of the Council’s meeting was to investigate Mr X’s complaint and to obtain facts about his case which it did. And the Council informed Mr X about its findings in its complaint response to him. These were not faults. While I note this might not have been the outcome Mr X was looking for, the Ombudsman cannot achieve the outcome Mr X wants and I find further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

Back to top

Decision

42. I find no fault by the Council in how it dealt with Mr X’s case.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman