Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council handled a building control matter. This is because we are unable to achieve the outcome the complainant wants. No significant injustice has been caused to the complainant by the Council issuing an enforcement notice.

The complaint

1. Ms X says the Council wrongly issued a building regulations certificate for a property that has problems and defects. She says the building inspector should have been aware of the problems and not relied on builders to self-certify their work. The problems with the property are causing financial loss and emotional strain on the leaseholders. Ms X wants the Council to contribute towards the cost of fixing the property, stop allowing builders to self-certify their work and to stop sending her enforcement notices.

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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:

• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants. (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 the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Ms X is a leaseholder of a property. The Council issued a building regulations certificate a number of years ago.
6. A certificate of building regulations approval can be granted by councils acting as building control authorities, or by independent ‘approved’ inspectors. Councils employ building inspectors to carry out this work.
7. Ms X said the Council’s building control inspector should have noticed the problems but still issued a certificate.
8. Most building work will require building regulation approval. The regulations will set the standards for design, construction and ensure the health and safety of the people living in or around the building. While the Council will normally visit the site at various stages of the build, it does not act as a clerk of works or a site manager and the responsibility for compliance with the regulations rests with the building owners and builders. The council’s role is to maintain the building standards for the public in general rather than protect the private interests of an individual.
9. I understand Ms X believes the Council should pay for the extra costs to put the building right. However. caselaw has established that where building work is found to be substandard, the liability for any defects rests with those that commission the work and those that carry it out. Therefore, we cannot hold the Council responsible for costs of making his building work compliant with building regulations and it is unlikely we could achieve a worthwhile outcome for Ms X by investigating her complaint.
10. Ms X said the issues were partly caused because the Council allowed builders to self-certify their work. Ms X wants the Council to stop allowing builders to self-certify their work. Competent person self-certification schemes (commonly referred to as competent person schemes) were introduced by the government in 2002 to allow individuals and enterprises to self-certify that their work complies with the building regulations as an alternative to submitting a building notice or using a registered building control approver. The Council said no competent person certificates were issued at the property. Even if there was, the scheme is a national scheme and therefore the Ombudsman cannot instruct the Council not to allow the scheme.
11. The Council issued a section 36 notice on the leaseholders of the property. A first tier tribunal decided it should not have issued the notices to the leaseholders. The Council withdrew the notices and issued it to the owner. The Council says it is deciding whether to enforce the notice. Because the Council withdrew the section 36 notice from Ms X, any fault has not caused a significant injustice to Ms X.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because we are unable to achieve the outcome the complainant wants. No significant injustice has been caused to the complainant by the Council issuing an enforcement notice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman