Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaints about the Council’s failure to respond to her solicitor about damage to a boundary wall and its delay in dealing with her insurance claim. This is because we cannot achieve any worthwhile outcome for Miss X by investigating. If Miss X wishes to pursue the issues she may wish to seek legal advice about making a claim against the Council at court.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Miss X, complains the Council has failed to respond to her solicitor’s correspondence about a boundary wall between her property and land owned by the Council. She also complains it has not responded to her insurance claim for subsidence to her property which she believes results from council-owned trees.

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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)
3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

Boundary wall

6. Miss X has reported damage to the boundary wall and wants the Council to fix it. The Council has explained to Miss X that it is investigating who owns the wall as there are no clear records which confirm who is responsible. Miss X is sure the Council is responsible but we cannot determine who owns the wall or tell the Council it must carry out repairs. It is therefore unlikely we could achieve any worthwhile outcome for Miss X on this point.

Subsidence claim

7. The Council has explained subsidence claims can take a significant amount of time to resolve and we cannot say it must rush its investigation or accept liability for the damage to Miss X’s property. If Miss X is not happy with the amount of time the Council is taking to deal with her claim she may wish to seek legal advice about making a claim against the Council at court.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because we cannot achieve any worthwhile outcome for Miss X. The issues she raises essentially concern a boundary dispute and a separate claim for liability for damage to her property and the courts are better placed to decide both issues.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman