Summary: We will not investigate Mr X and Mrs Y’s complaint about the Council’s grant of planning permission for a new dwelling in 2018 because the complaint is late. We will not investigate their more recent enforcement issue relating to the same development as the matter does not cause them significant injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainants, Mr X and Mrs Y, complain the Council made an error in granting planning permission for a new dwelling in 2018. They also complain the Council failed to properly investigate their complaint that the new dwelling has not been constructed in accordance with the approved plans.

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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 effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by Mr X and Mrs Y’s representative, Mr Z, and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mr Z believes the new dwelling, which backs onto Mr X and Mrs Y’s property, has been built in the wrong position. He estimates this brings the new dwelling approximately 1m closer to their shared boundary.
7. The Council has not formally decided whether the new dwelling has been built according to the approved plans but it has told the complainants that the alleged breach is unlikely to warrant formal enforcement action. This is because it considers it is not so harmful that it would warrant refusal in the event the applicant applied to retain the development as-built.
8. Mr Z has provided a photograph to show the relationship between the new dwelling and Mr X and Mrs Y’s garden and while I have sympathy for them I do not consider the alleged breach causes significant enough injustice to investigate the matter further. The main harm to their property stems from the grant of planning permission itself and any complaint about this decision, including the alleged error referred to at Paragraph 1, is late. There is no suggestion Mr X and Mrs Y were unaware of the decision at the time but they did not complain to the Council about it until 2020 or to us until February 2022. I have seen no good reasons for this delay and I have therefore decided not to exercise our discretion to investigate their complaint.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because any complaint about the Council’s grant of planning permission is late and the more recent planning enforcement issue does not cause Mr X and Mrs Y significant injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman