Summary: Ms B complains about the Council’s handling of matters relating to damage to her property. The Ombudsman will not investigate the complaint because there are insufficient grounds to warrant a formal investigation of secondary issues and the substantive issue falls outside our jurisdiction.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to as Ms B, complains about the Council’s handling of matters relating to damage to her property. She complains the Council failed to notify her about the date it was due to undertake some investigative work, about its failure to return telephone calls and about its complaint handling.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe:

• it is unlikely we would find fault, or
• the fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• it is unlikely we could add to any previous investigation by the Council, or
• it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

3. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. In considering the complaint I reviewed the information provided by Ms B and the Council. I gave Ms B the opportunity to comment on my draft decision and considered what her representative said on her behalf.

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What I found

5. Ms B’s representative contacted the Council about damage to Ms B’s property which she believes the Council is responsible for.
6. Dissatisfied with the Council’s handling of matters, including its response to her complaint, Ms B has now informed the Council of her intention to start legal proceedings against it for neglect and nuisance.

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Assessment

7. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
8. The restriction highlighted at paragraph 3 applies to the substantive issue of Ms B’s complaint which concerns her view that the Council is liable for damage caused to her property. She has an alternative remedy through the courts for such a claim which she has indicated she will be using and this places this matter outside our jurisdiction.
9. There are insufficient grounds to warrant an investigation into the secondary issues she has raised, including the way the Council dealt with the complaint, when we are not investigating the substantive issue.

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Final decision

10. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because there are insufficient grounds to warrant a formal investigation of secondary issues and the substantive issue falls outside our jurisdiction.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman