Summary: We will not investigate this complaint the Council has not taken action to make safe a dangerous building. That is because any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council failed to deal with his report of an unsafe building properly. He said it had not asked the building’s owners to make it safe and had not met its own timeframes in responding to his concerns. He said the Council’s failure to act had caused distress and the building made the area appear neglected. Mr X wants the Council to barrier off the building and ask the building owners to make it safe.

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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 injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(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 the complainant.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint against the Council. Our role is to consider complaints where the person bringing the complaint has suffered significant personal injustice as a direct result of the actions or inactions of the organisation. This means we will normally only investigate a complaint where the complainant has suffered serious loss, harm, or distress as a direct result of faults or failures. Although Mr X has safety concerns about the building and the negative impact it has on the area, we would not consider that a significant enough injustice to justify our involvement.
6. In addition, the Council confirmed a surveyor inspected the building and did not consider it posed a danger to the public. There is not enough evidence of fault in how the Council acted upon Mr X’s concerns to justify our involvement.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman