Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of a building control issue. This is because the complaint is late, I have seen no good reasons to exercise our discretion to investigate it and we cannot achieve the outcome Miss X wants.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains the Council issued a completion certificate for building work in error. She says the Council issued the certificate to the wrong person, used the wrong process and the description of the work is inaccurate. She wants the Council to invalidate the completion certificate and the planning permission it relates to. She also wants the Council to reimburse her court fees from legal action against the builder and pay her damages including for future loss of income and other associated financial losses.

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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))

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. 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 Miss X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. The issues Miss X complains about date back to 2022 when the Council issued the completion certificate and she confirms she has known about this for at least three years. Her complaint is therefore late. I have considered whether there are good reasons to exercise our discretion to investigate the complaint but I have seen no good reasons to do so.
7. In any event, we cannot determine whether the Council was wrong to issue the completion certificate and we cannot achieve the outcome Miss X wants. We have no powers to invalidate the completion certificate or the planning permission Miss X refers to and we cannot award ‘damages’.
8. The financial losses Miss X claims are too speculative for us to recommend a remedy for them so if she wishes to pursue these claims she may wish to consider taking legal action against the Council.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate this complaint. This is primarily because we cannot achieve the outcome Miss X wants. The complaint is also late and it would have been reasonable for Miss X to complain to us sooner.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman