Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council requiring her and fellow flat tenants to pay for an additional communal waste bin. The Council says its adopted policy allows it to charge. Even if there has been Council fault, the injustice to Mrs X and other tenants is not sufficiently significant to warrant us investigating. We also cannot achieve the outcome Mrs X wants.

The complaint

1. Mrs X lives in a block of flats with large communal bins. She complains the Council is requiring the property’s residents to pay the cost of an additional bin.
2. Mrs X says the new fortnightly collections mean that without another bin the property’s waste capacity is too small and bins are overflowing. She says wildlife is taking rubbish from the bins and it is becoming a health and safety issue. Mrs X wants the Council to give the block another bin without charging residents.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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:

• 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), as amended, section 34(B))

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information from Mrs X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

5. Councils are entitled to charge for bins. The Council says it does not have sufficient budget to pay for large communal bins. Even if there has been fault by the Council in its position on this issue, we will not investigate. The cost of the bin per household in Mrs X’s block of flats would be about £12 each. There is insufficient significant financial injustice to Mrs X from the Council’s policy on the bin charge to warrant investigation. The practical problems with the current number of bins stems from not buying an additional bin, not from the Council’s charging policy.
6. Mrs X and her fellow residents might also be able to refer the bin issue to their managing agent if they have one. Such agents would normally organise communal matters like bins. It would then be for the agent to deal with the Council. The agent may meet the bin costs from any fees residents pay to them to manage the property.
7. We note Mrs X wants us to tell the Council to supply the block’s new bin without charging residents. We cannot order a council to do this. That we cannot achieve the outcome Mrs X wants is a further reason why we will not investigate.

Back to top

Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because:
• the injustice to her and other tenants is not sufficiently significant to warrant us investigating; and
• we cannot achieve the outcome she wants.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman