Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s changing of the complainant’s address. We do not consider the complainant has suffered sufficient personal injustice to warrant an investigation. Nor can we achieve the outcome sought.

The complaint

1. The complainant, I shall call Mr X, says the Council changed his address without his knowledge before a public inquiry into his appeal against an enforcement notice. He says this invalidated his car insurance caused stress and anxiety. Mr X also complains an individual officer has discriminated against his family.
2. Mr X wants the Officer investigated for “all of his wrong doings over the years”. He also wants him removed from his role.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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:

• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mr X which includes the Council’s responses to his complaint.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. The Council says the original address used for Mr X’s property was for council tax purposes. It was agreed when Mr X contacted the council tax department in 2017.
7. It changed the address following information from the planning department. It says it took the new address from a planning application put in by Mr X which officers believed better reflected the property location.
8. The Council issued an enforcement notice in 2019. Mr X appealed to the Planning Inspector.
9. Mr X says the Council changed the address to support its position on the planning appeal . The appeal was heard by a public inquiry in 2021.
10. The Planning Inspector upheld Mr X’s appeal. Also, while Mr X states the change of address invalidated his car insurance, he has not provided any evidence to show this caused any issues at the time. Therefore, I do not consider that he suffered significant personal injustice because of the change of address on the Council’s records.
11. The Council has agreed to reinstate the original address for council tax purposes. It has also confirmed to Mr X that he has never registered his property with its street naming/numbering team and advised him how to do this.
12. I have seen no evidence to support Mr X’s claim the Council has discriminated against him for any reason.
13. Mr X wants the Council Officer removed from his position for “all his wrong doings over the years.” The Ombudsman cannot involve himself in personnel matters and we cannot require the Council to remove an officer from his post. Also, if Mr X wishes to make complaints about specific issues, he must exhaust the Council’s complaints procedure on each concern. If he remains dissatisfied with the outcome he may complain to us. However, we will not usually look at complaints about issues the complainant has been aware of for more than 12 months unless there is good reason.

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Final decision

14. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about a change of address because:
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome; and
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman