The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of a building control matter. This is because the Council’s actions have not caused Ms X significant injustice.
The complaint
The complainant, Ms X, complains a council building control officer visited her property without any identification or paperwork about the alleged infringement of the Building Regulations he was there to investigate. She also complains the Council provided factually incorrect information, failed to keep proper records and breached the Building Control Performance Standards.
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 Ms X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
We do not investigate all the complaints we receive. In deciding whether to investigate we need to consider various tests. These include the alleged injustice to the person complaining. We only investigate the most serious complaints.
I understand Ms X is unhappy with the visit from the building control officer and the information provided by the Council about why the officer visited her property but the issue has not caused her any significant personal injustice. We will not therefore investigate it further.
Ms X is also unhappy with the way the Council dealt with her complaint. But it is not a good use of public resources to look at the Council’s complaints handling if we are not going to look at the substantive issue complained about. We will not therefore investigate this issue separately.
Final decision
We will not investigate this complaint. This is because the Council’s actions did not cause Ms X significant injustice.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman