Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s issue of a completion certificate for building work to Mr X’s property. This is because we cannot achieve any worthwhile outcome for Mr X.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council issued completion certificates for building works carried out for a new development despite the developer having not complied with a planning condition. Mr X says he relied on the completion certificate when purchasing his home and has spent time and money trying to resolve the issue. He is also concerned about whether the Council properly assessed the work before issuing the certificate.

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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 not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• 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))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

4. Building regulations set standards for the design and construction of buildings to ensure the health and safety of people in and about those buildings. 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, building work complied with the building regulations.
5. 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.
6. We will not investigate this complaint further because we cannot decide whether the work complies with the Building Regulations and even if we could say the Council was wrong to issue the completion certificate, we could not hold it responsible for any injustice caused by doing so. Either the work complies with the Building Regulations, in which case the Council would not be at fault for issuing the certificate, or it does not, in which case the builder/developer would be responsible for any flaws.
7. Mr X makes a link between the completion certificate and conditions attached to the original grant of planning permission for the development but we could not say a failure to discharge the conditions invalidates the completion certificate, or that any flaws with the work impacts on the planning conditions. They relate to two separate processes and it is therefore entirely possible for the Council to conclude that work complies with the Building Regulations but not with the conditions attached to the planning permission.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because we cannot achieve any worthwhile outcome for Mr X.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman