The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about who owns a disputed strip of land. The rightful ownership of the land is a legal matter and any investigation by us is unlikely to achieve a meaningful outcome.
The complaint
Ms X purchased a former council home some years ago. She says a previous owner moved the boundary fence to make the plot larger and complains the Council now want the additional land back.
Ms X said the Council’s action has caused her distress and, if the fence is put back to the original position, she will have a public footpath very close to her home and the habitat for birds will be affected.
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 do not start an investigation if we decide 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.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Ms X has lived in her former council home for many years. She says the previous owner, who purchased the property from the Council, moved the boundary fence, which enlarged the garden. Ms X was not aware of this when she bought the property. The Council now wants the disputed strip of land back.
There is no evidence of fault by the Council when the boundary was changed and, even if there was, it happened too long ago for us to investigate that now.
We cannot resolve the question of who owns the land as that is a legal matter. Therefore, we will not investigate the complaint further as there is nothing worthwhile we could achieve by doing so.
Final decision
We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because we could not achieve a worthwhile outcome.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman