London Borough of Haringey (19 019 009)

Category : Planning > Enforcement

Decision : Closed after initial enquiries

Decision date : 20 Mar 2020

The Ombudsman's final decision:

Summary: The Ombudsman will not Mr X’s complaint about the Council issuing an enforcement notice. I consider it reasonable for him to have exercised his right to appeal to the Planning Inspector at the time the notice was issued.

The complaint

  1. Mr X complains for his client Mr Y, about the Council’s decision to issue an Enforcement Notice to Mr X against his loft extension.
  2. He says Mr Y will lose £60,000 which he paid for the extension which he cannot afford. He wants the enforcement action to stop.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

  1. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone has or had a right to appeal to a government minister. We may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to appeal but cannot investigate if the person has already appealed. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(b))
  2. The Planning Inspector acts on behalf of the responsible Government minister. The Planning Inspector considers appeals about.
    • delay – usually over eight weeks – by an authority in deciding an application for planning permission
    • a decision to refuse planning permission
    • conditions placed on planning permission
    • a planning enforcement notice.

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How I considered this complaint

  1. I considered the information provided by Mr X. He and comment on this draft decision.

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What I found

  1. Mr Y build a loft extension at his home without planning permission.
  2. The Council has issued an enforcement notice to Mr Y.
  3. Mr X says the loft extension has been in place for more than 4 years and the Council is not complying with planning law by refusing to withdraw the enforcement notice.
  4. However, when it issued the enforcement notice to Mr Y, it informed him he had the right to appeal to the Secretary of State through the Planning Inspectorate.
  5. Because he had this right of appeal to the Planning Inspectorate his complaint is outside the jurisdiction of the Ombudsman. I have considered if I should exercise the discretion open to me to investigate the complaint even though Mr Y did not exercise his right to appeal.
  6. I consider it reasonable that Mr Y should have used this right as only a Planning Inspector could have granted him the planning consent.

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Final decision

  1. I will not investigate this complaint. This is because Mr Y had a right to appeal to the Planning Inspector against the enforcement notice which he did not use.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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