Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council approving building works which the complainant says are defective. It is reasonable to expect the complainant to have complained to us again sooner, and it is unlikely an investigation would achieve a worthwhile outcome for them.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council’s building control team approved building works which did not comply with the building regulations.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. We can 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. So, we do not start an investigation if we decide:

• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

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

4. And 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)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by Ms X and the Council, which included the Council’s Stage 1 complaint response.
6. I also considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. The time restriction detailed in paragraph 4 above appears to apply to Ms X’s complaint. This is because she discussed her concerns about the works with the Council in Spring 2023, and received its Stage 1 complaint response in February 2024. Ms X then contacted the Ombudsman in June 2024, but we advised she needed to complete the Council’s complaints process first. Ms X did not escalate her complaint with the Council, and she returned to the Ombudsman in September 2025. I see no good reasons to exercise discretion to investigate this late complaint now.
8. And even if this time restriction did not apply to Ms X’s complaint, we still would not investigate. While a council may inspect work at various stages or issue a completion certificate, this is not a guarantee that all work complies with the regulations. Caselaw has established that where building work is later found to be substandard, the liability for any defects rests with those that commission the work and those that carry it out. We therefore cannot hold the Council responsible for the problems with the building work, so it is unlikely we could achieve a worthwhile outcome for Ms X by investigating her complaint.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because it is reasonable to expect her to have contacted us again sooner, and we could not achieve a worthwhile outcome for her.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman