Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about damage allegedly caused to Mr X’s property. The matter is best considered an insurance matter, which the courts are best placed to consider.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council’s member of staff caused damage to his property when cutting grass next to their home. He said the Council delayed resolving the matter and he wanted it to repair the damage or pay for the cost of Mr X arranging this, as well as take steps to prevent the same reoccurring.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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

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 normally consider complaints about damage caused to property. This is because such matters are really insurance claims, which should be escalated via the courts where no resolution has been achieved. Only the courts can decide if a council is liable to pay for the cost of repairs caused by council employees.
6. The Council may not be able to achieve the outcome Mr X seeks of service improvements. However, in this case there is insufficient evidence the matter was caused by a systemic problem, and so we would be unable to make service improvement recommendations if we investigated the complaint.
7. While we expect councils to deal with insurance claims promptly, we would not normally investigate a complaint about failure to do so. This is because the substantive matter is one we will not investigate and it is not a good use of public resources for us to consider the peripheral matters. Mr X indicates he has not had a satisfactory final response from the Council. It is open to him to approach the small claims court, and he does not have to await a final response from the Council before doing so.
8. The small claims court is a relatively straightforward process, with a sliding scale of fees relative to the amount claimed. It is not necessary to have legal representation. There is not a good reason for us to consider the matter instead.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is reasonable for him to submit an application to the courts as an insurance claim.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman