Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s failure to identify damage to her property caused by her neighbour’s builder as part of the building control process. This is because the issue is a private civil matter between Miss X and her neighbour/their builder and we could not achieve any worthwhile outcome for Miss X by investigating.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Miss X, complains the Council’s building control officer failed to notice her neighbour’s builder had damaged her property. She is unhappy the officer allowed the building work to continue and that they have declined to become involved in the dispute. She believes the Council should withhold the final completion certificate until the builder carries out repairs and that it should issue an enforcement notice if they fail to do so.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Miss X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

Background

4. Building Regulations set standards for the design and construction of buildings to ensure the health and safety of people in and about those buildings. They provide a means for the local authority to maintain building standards in general, rather than imposing a duty to maintain standards in each particular case.
5. When carrying out their functions under the Building Regulations, local authorities may visit at various stages but they are not present for the great majority of the project and do not act as a ‘clerk of works’. 
6. On request and when satisfied after taking 'all reasonable steps' that the Regulations have been met, the local authority (or any private ‘approved inspector’) must issue a completion certificate. A completion certificate 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.

Miss X’s case

7. In monitoring Miss X’s neighbour’s building work for compliance with the Building Regulations the Council’s focus was on determining whether the work met the required standards. Its inspector was under no obligation to examine Miss X’s property for signs of damage and had no power or responsibility to force her neighbour’s builder to put right any damage that had occurred. This is a private civil matter between Miss X and her neighbour/their builder; it is an issue which may be covered under the Party Wall Act 1996 and is more appropriately for the courts.
8. While Miss X would like the Council to withhold the final completion certificate for the work or issue an enforcement notice requiring the builder to put right the damage this is not an outcome we can achieve. The Council would have no basis to withhold a completion certificate or issue an enforcement notice where the building works themselves comply with the Regulations but the builder has not put right damage to a neighbouring property. The issues are entirely separate and such actions would not be appropriate and may be unlawful.
9. Miss X’s remedy for the issue lies in a claim against her neighbour/their builder and we could not say the Council should intervene in this.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because we cannot achieve any worthwhile outcome for Miss X.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman