Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about property damage and nuisance caused to Mr X by Council contractors who carried out work close to his home. This is because the complaint is a late complaint due to the passage of time and because an investigation is unlikely to add to that carried out by the Council in 2022 or lead to a different outcome.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about his treatment by the Council and its contractors during work carried out close to his property when his fence was damaged, he could not use his gate and he was concerned about security issues. He said it breached its statutory duty and should pay him compensation.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
4. 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, 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 could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant, including the Council’s response to his complaint.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Mr X complained to the Council about the negative impact of works its contractors were carrying out close to his home in 2021. The Council found no breach of its statutory duty and declined to pay compensation. It completed its investigation of the complaint at the end of 2022 and told Mr X of his right to complain to us, providing our phone contact, email and website details.
8. The restriction highlighted at paragraph 3 applies to Mr X’s complaint. He could have reasonably complained to us sooner if had he followed the information about our service provided by the Council in 2022 and there are insufficient grounds to warrant exercising discretion to investigate it now.
9. Even if Mr X had complained to us within 12 months, it is unlikely we would have investigated because the Council had arranged for the damaged property to be repaired and it spoke to the contractors about the various issues Mr X raised.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the complaint is a late complaint due to the passage of time and because an investigation is unlikely to add to that carried out by the Council in 2022 or lead to a different outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman