Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s grant of planning permission for his neighbour Mr Y’s extension and its enforcement action. There is not enough evidence of Council fault in its planning process to warrant investigation. The planning permission is not the cause of claimed damage and encroachment onto Mr X’s property by Mr Y, nor the cause of the private civil issues between Mr X and Mr Y. The Council’s enforcement action against Mr Y has no bearing on the civil issues. We do not investigate complaints about councils’ internal complaint processes in isolation from the core matters giving rise to the complaint.

The complaint

1. Mr X lives in a property with a rear extension. His neighbour Mr Y applied for planning permission to build his own extension, next to Mr X’s.
2. Miss Z is Mr X’s representative and complains on his behalf that the Council:
1. incorrectly granted planning permission for Mr Y’s extension;
2. failed to proceed with enforcement action against Mr Y’s development;
3. failed to respond to the complaint properly and clearly.
3. Miss Z says the Council’s decision to give planning permission created a civil matter between Mr X and Mr Y. Mr X’s property has been damaged and encroached over by the development as permitted by the Council. Miss Z says the matter has caused Mr X stress, which has affected his physical health.
4. Miss Z says Mr X wants the Council to:
• be honest with him and accept its failings;
• possibly reimburse him for damage to his property and the encroachment;
• possibly revoke the planning permission;
• organise a meeting with planning, building control and enforcement officers to discuss the matter.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

5. 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
• there is another body better placed to consider the complaint.

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

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information from Mr X, relevant online planning documents, and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. There are two core planning issues in Mr X’s complaint: the Council’s planning permission decision on Mr Y’s extension, and its enforcement action against Mr Y’s extension as built.
8. Mr X believes it was the Council’s decision to grant Mr Y planning permission for the extension which caused the boundary dispute, by giving Mr Y the mandate to damage his extension and encroach onto his land. Anyone can apply for planning permission to develop land they do not own. The grant of planning permission only determines whether the development is acceptable in planning terms. It does not give the applicant any rights to develop on land without separate agreement from the owner of that land.
9. From the online planning documents I have seen, several plans from 2018 onwards show Mr Y considered Mr X’s existing extension encroached onto his land. It was not the Council’s planning permission decision which has led to this dispute between Mr X and Mr Y over the position of their properties’ boundaries. There is not enough evidence of Council fault in its planning process here to warrant us investigating.
10. Mr Y considers he is building his extension on land he owns. It would have been preferable if Mr Y had discussed this before cutting into Mr X’s extension. But that was Mr Y’s action, not any action by the Council. It is Mr Y’s actions and decisions, not the Council’s, which have affected Mr X’s property, and caused distress and upset to him.
11. Any damage to Mr X’s property, or any claim of encroachment onto Mr X’s land by Mr Y, are private civil matters. This legal land ownership and property damage dispute cannot be resolved by the planning system, only by the courts. The planning process cannot resolve land ownership issues, only whether a development applied for is acceptable in planning terms. As the organisation created to consider property damage and land ownership issues, the court system is the body best placed to decide them. Mr X may wish to seek independent legal advice before pursuing that route.
12. The Council took planning enforcement action against Mr Y because his extension as built does not comply with the permission it granted in 2021. The matter is currently with the Planning Inspectorate. The Ombudsman cannot intervene in that ongoing process. In any event, the enforcement process is part of the planning system and cannot rule on or resolve the property damage or encroachment issues Mr X has with Mr Y’s development. The enforcement process can only deal with planning matters, not the private civil and legal matters at the core of Mr X’s complaint and his claimed injustice.
13. Mr X considers the Council did not deal with and respond to his complaint properly. We will not investigate a council’s complaint-handling process in isolation where we are not investigating the core matters which gave rise to the complaint. We do not consider it to be an effective use of our resources to do so. That limitation applies here, so we will not pursue this part of the complaint.

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Final decision

14. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because:
• there is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s planning permission process to warrant us investigating; and
• his claimed injustices are not the result of Council actions or inactions; and
• the court system is the body best placed to determine the property damage and land ownership disputes between him and Mr Y; and
• the Council’s enforcement action against the developer has no bearing on the claimed private civil matters of encroachment over and damage to Mr X’s property; and
• we do not investigate councils’ complaints processes in isolation when we are not investigating the core issues giving rise to the complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman