London Borough of Brent (23 002 351)
Category : Planning > Enforcement
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 14 Aug 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about planning enforcement because there is no evidence of fault by the Council.
The complaint
- Mr X says that the Council acted unreasonably and excessively when investigating a complaint about the occupancy status of his property.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with 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.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X is a landlord and says that the Council visited his property recently and acted excessively and unreasonably when carrying out the visit.
- The Council says that there was no need to provide Mr X with notice of such a visit. It confirms that the visit was carried out in a friendly and amenable way with the consent of the tenants. It confirms that photographs were taken and tenants interviewed to assess whether the property had changed to a house of multiple occupation.
- The Council is entitled to carry our such investigations following complaints and I have seen no evidence to show that the Council acted excessively or unreasonably when carrying out this investigation.
- Mr X's dissatisfaction lies with the merits of the Council's actions but, in the absence of fault, the Ombudsman cannot criticise the Council's actions.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman