Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision not to allow the complainant to transfer his building project to a different Registered Building Control Approver. We have not seen enough evidence of fault in the Council’s actions to justify an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council refuses to exercise discretion and accept a late transfer of a Registered Building Control Approver (RBCA). He says he acted in good faith and the Council are insisting on treating his case as a new instruction, despite him already having paid £1,140 to a different company.
2. He wants the Council to accept the late transfer and reduce the fee.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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 not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.

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

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mr X.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mr X engaged a RBCA for a building project at his home. Unfortunately the RBCA went into administration before a completion certificate was issued. Mr X engaged a new RBCA.
7. The Government has issued guidance on transfers of projects to a new registered building control approver. This states:

“Where the outgoing RBCA or the person carrying out the work has identified a new RBCA willing to act as the building control body for the work, the ‘new’ RBCA must issue a new initial notice for these projects within a period of 7 days from the cancellation of the original initial notice (under section 53 (7)(a) and (8) of the Building Act 1984) using Form 1 of Schedule 1 to the Building (Registered Building Control Approvers etc.) (England) Regulations 2024.”

8. The Council says the new agent failed to submit the Notification of Transfer within the required timeframe and therefore Mr X’s project was outside of building control for more than the allowed seven days. Therefore it refused to allow Mr X to transfer his project to a new RBCA. The Council instead required Mr X to pay the full fee for them to take over the RBCA function. It also advised Mr X to contact the second RBCA with his concerns as it appears they failed to carry out Mr X’s instruction.
9. I understand Mr X feels it is unfair for him to have to pay the full fee for a project which is largely completed and for which he has already paid £1,140 to the company which is now in administration. However, 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 those processes correctly, we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong, regardless of whether you disagree with the decision the organisation made.
10. I have considered the steps the organisation took to consider the issue, and the information it took account of when deciding not to allow Mr X to transfer his project to another RBCA. I have not seen enough evidence of fault in how it took the decision and I therefore cannot question whether that decision was right or wrong.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we have not seen enough evidence of fault in how it took the decision and we therefore cannot question whether that decision was right or wrong.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman