The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a vehicle crossover installed by Council contractors. There is insufficient evidence of fault to warrant an investigation.
The complaint
Mr X complains about the quality of a vehicle crossover installed by Council contractors outside his property. He says the work is sub-standard, but the Council has refused to complete further works. He also complains about poor complaint handling. He wants the Council to either rectify the work to the correct specification or compensate him for the poor workmanship.
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 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 or continue an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B)) We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
In its complaint response to Mr X, the Council said it had completed a site visit, liaised with relevant officers and reviewed video evidence of the completed work. It said it was satisfied his concerns had been appropriately addressed and the work had now been completed to the required specification.
We will not investigate this complaint. The Council has considered Mr X’s complaint and is satisfied the work is now completed to the required standard. Although I accept Mr X disagrees with this, the Council appropriately completed a site visit and considered other relevant evidence before reaching its decision. There is insufficient evidence of fault in how it reached its decision to warrant an investigation.
Mr X also complains about poor complaints handling. We will not investigate this as it is not a good use of our resources to investigate complaints about complaints handling when we are not considering the substantive matter.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault to warrant an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman