The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that the Council has invoiced him for additional building control fees several months after the completion of his building work and without informing him of the cost in advance. This is because the Council is seeking to obtain payment only for services requested by Mr X’s architect on his behalf and Mr X would therefore always have had to pay its charges.
The complaint
The complainant, Mr X, complains the Council failed to inform him he would need to pay £429 for his ‘full plans’ building control application and has invoiced him for this cost months after issuing a completion certificate for the work.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
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)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
When commencing building works requiring approval under the Building Regulations a homeowner may serve notice on the council or make a ‘full plans’ application. Such an application requires plans and other information showing all construction details which the Council will assess for approval with the Building Regulations. The Council will then inspect the work at certain stages to confirm compliance, as far as is possible, with the Regulations. Serving a building notice does not require the homeowner to submit plans but the Council will visit to carry out its inspections before issuing a completion certificate once the works have been completed to the required standard.
Mr X appointed an architect to prepare plans for his building work and they submitted a full plans application to the Council for approval. The application noted Mr X would be in contact to pay any fees owed, which they entered as £495.
Mr X contacted the Council to make payment and says he was told the full cost for building control services was £495. The Council confirms it has no record of Mr X’s call and suggests there was a misunderstanding as this was the cost for inspections only. However, because Mr X’s application was a full plans application there was a further charge of £429 for this additional service.
Mr X paid the £495 at the time but the Council then issued a further invoice for the remaining balance of £429 in February 2022. Mr X says it is unreasonable for it to demand this further payment so long after issuing a completion certificate and because it had confirmed to him that he would only need to pay £495.
The Council has apologised for any misunderstanding regarding the total cost of services during his telephone call in 2021 and given the lack of a call recording we could not get to the bottom of exactly what Mr X was told. However, and in any event, the Council has provided the full plans application and inspection services and both amounts are therefore payable.
While it may be fault that the Council provided its services at the time and without Mr X having paid for them in full, this did not cause Mr X significant injustice. In fact, Mr X has had the benefit of his £429 for longer and the Council has suggested a payment arrangement allowing him to pay the amount owed in instalments; this has the effect of providing him with an interest-free loan with manageable repayments of no more than £50 per payment.
The Council is asking Mr X to pay no more than he would have done had it invoiced him for both services at the time and we would not therefore say it must waive its charges now.
Final decision
We will not investigate this complaint. This is because the Council’s actions did not cause Mr X significant injustice.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman