The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a comment a Council officer made while responding to a report of a leak. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council and insufficient evidence of injustice. In addition, we could not achieve the outcome the complainant wants.
The complaint
The complainant, whom I refer to as Mr X, says an officer wrongly said Mr X had reported that a leak had started a year ago. Mr X wants the officer to be fired.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact 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: there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council. This includes the complaint correspondence. I also considered our Assessment Code and invited Mr X to comment on a draft of this decision.
My assessment
In 2019 Mr X reported a leak from the property next door. He gave the Council a surveyor’s report from 2018. The Council established the neighbour had already fixed the leak so the Council did not need to take any enforcement action.
During the conversation about the leak the officer misunderstood something Mr X said. The officer thought Mr X was referring to recent repairs when Mr X was actually referring to repairs from 2011. The Council apologised for the misunderstanding.
I will not start an investigation because there is insufficient evidence of fault and injustice. The Council misunderstood something Mr X said but the Council has apologised and this does not represent fault which requires an investigation. In addition, there is nothing to suggest it has caused an injustice which warrants an investigation.
I also will not investigate this complaint because we cannot achieve the outcome Mr X wants. This is because we have no power to get officers dismissed from their jobs.
Final decision
We will not investigate this complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council and insufficient evidence of injustice. In addition, we cannot achieve the outcome Mr X would like.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman