Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s decision to charge him for emergency works. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about the Council's decision to charge him for emergency work on his business property and neighbouring properties. He says this is unfair as it was not his fault the work had to be undertaken. Mr X says he had to take out a loan to pay the charges.

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

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. In October 2024, Mr X’s neighbour did work to his property, having made a building control application. There was significant damage to Mr X’s property, the flat above and to the neighbour’s property. The Council decided the buildings were dangerous and took action to protect the public.
6. In March 2025, the Council sent Mr X an invoice for the works and for fencing off the road. It explained it had shared the costs equally between the dangerous properties.
7. Mr X complained to the Council. He said he should not have to pay for the costs of making the building safe because the damage was caused by his neighbour.
8. The Council said it could not decide who was at fault. Only a court or insurers could decide this. It suggested Mr X should seek independent legal advice. It said it had acted in line with its policy to share the costs between affected property owners.
9. Primary responsibility for the building work rests with Mr X’s neighbour and the builders who carried out the work, not the Council. It is also not the Council’s role to protect neighbouring properties from damage caused by building works. This will instead be a private civil matter between Mr X and his neighbour.
10. I will not investigate this complaint. 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. The Council has acted in line with its duties to keep the public safe and its policy on recovering the costs of the work, so we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s actions to justify an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman