The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr and Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of a building control matter. This is because the injustice they claim is the result of the actions of the previous owner of the property and their builder and we cannot say the Council must provide a remedy for this.
The complaint
The complainants, Mr and Mrs X, complain the Council signed off work to the extension of a property they have now bought which does not comply with the requirements set out in the Building Regulations.
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 and Mrs X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Building regulations set standards for the design and construction of buildings to ensure the health and safety of people in and about those buildings. A completion certificate for building work is not a guarantee that all works are completed to the necessary standard. All the certificate can and does state is that, as far as the Council could tell at the time, building work complied with the building regulations.
We would expect any person purchasing a property to have a full survey before completing the purchase. If a defect is later discovered in work completed before the purchase we would expect the building owner to have a remedy against either the person who carried out the survey or the previous owner.
This is because caselaw has established that where a local authority issues a completion certificate it does not take on responsibility or liability for substandard work; this remains with those responsible for the work rather than with the Council for signing it off.
Because the courts have decided local authorities are not responsible for substandard work carried out by third parties we cannot say the Council must put the issues right. If they believe someone else should pay to bring the work up to the required standard they may wish to obtain legal advice about the possibility of a claim against the former owner/their builder.
Mr and Mrs X are also unhappy with the way the Council dealt with their 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 we cannot achieve any worthwhile outcome for Mr and Mrs X by investigating the matter further.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman