Summary: The Council caused avoidable frustration and inconvenience to Ms X by failing to attend several appointments to fix the door of the garage that she leases from the Council. The Council caused Ms X further frustration when it failed to inspect the works done to the garage following reports of them being poorly carried out and damaging Ms X’s car. The Council has agreed to inspect the works and if these were not carried out properly, to refund Ms X the fees she has paid for her garage since January 2022. The Council has already refunded Ms X for the fees paid since the garage was unusable prior to January 2022. The Council was not at fault for refunding Ms X for loss of use of the garage starting in April 2021, as this was the date the Council first became aware that repairs were needed.

The complaint

1. Ms X complained the Council:
1. unnecessarily delayed fixing the door to the garage she leased from the Council meaning it was out of use from January 2021 to January 2022;
2. failed to attend several appointments to repair the garage door without letting her know in advance, causing her to avoidably take time off work;
3. failed to refund her for the entire year that she was unable to access the garage;
4. poorly repaired the garage door, caused damage to her tyre and failed to reimburse her for the tyre damage; and
5. failed to refund her for the period when her garage became unusable again following issues with the garage door repair, from January 2022 to date.

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What I have and have not investigated

2. I have investigated complaints 1b, 1c and 1e.
3. I have not investigated the following:
• complaint 1a) The Council has already apologised for the delay in repairing the door and cited supply chain issues as the reason. As a remedy it reimbursed Ms X for the lease payments she made on the garage from when it first became aware the garage door needed repairs to the date the repairs were made. This was appropriate action to remedy the fault and further investigation by us would be unlikely to achieve anything more for Ms X.
• complaint 1d) The quality of the repair works to the door - and any subsequent damage caused to Ms X’s car as a result - are matters which are better dealt with by the insurers and the courts, rather than the Ombudsman. Only the courts can decide whether the Council is liable to pay damages.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
5. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
6. 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)
7. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We do not start an investigation or part of an investigation if we decide 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))
8. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

9. I considered the information provided by Ms X and the Council.
10. I considered the relevant law and guidance as set out below.
11. I considered our Guidance on Remedies.
12. I considered comments made by Ms X and the Council on previous draft decisions before making a final decision.

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What I found

Principles of good administrative practice

13. We expect councils to follow good administrative practice. This includes providing reasonable, timely decisions, keeping to commitments, informing service users what they can expect and putting mistakes right quickly and effectively.

What happened

14. Ms X leases a garage from the Council which she uses for storing her car.
15. In January 2021 the garage door broke, leaving Ms X unable to use the garage.
16. Ms X raised the repair issue through her local MP in the same month. In April 2021, the MP wrote to the Council regarding the garage door.
17. Between April 2021 and January 2022 the Council missed more than three appointments which it had scheduled with Ms X to assess and repair the garage door. Ms X had to be present for these appointments and took time off work.
18. By 11 January 2022 the Council still had not repaired the garage door so Ms X complained to the Council.
19. On 7 Feb 2022 the Council responded to Ms X’s complaint. By then it had replaced the door. It apologised for the delays in doing so, but not for the missed appointments. As a remedy for the delay, it said it would refund Ms X’s lease payments on the garage from April 2021 to January 2022.
20. The Council said it would not refund earlier than April 2021, as there was no evidence Ms X raised the repairs issue with the Council before that date. The Council invited Ms X to provide any evidence of her having raised it before that date.
21. Ms X made a stage 2 complaint and said she had informed her MP that repairs were needed earlier than April 2021. However she did not provide any evidence of her informing the Council before April 2021.
22. On 19 April 2022, Ms X reported a problem with the newly installed door. She said due to the repair works being done poorly, the garage door had damaged her vehicle.
23. Ms X said as a result she was still unable to use the garage despite paying for it and was instead parking on the forecourt.
24. The Council arranged an inspection of the works for 28 June 2022. However the Council said there is no post-inspection report available and the staff member that carried it out has now left the Council. The Council does not know whether this inspection went ahead or not.
25. The Council has recently contacted Ms X following our enquiries to ask when she is available so that another inspection of the works can be scheduled.

My findings

Missed appointments

26. The Council failed to attend several appointments it made in 2021 to assess and repair the garage door. The Council was at fault. This fault caused Ms X frustration and inconvenience as she had to unnecessarily take time off work to attend these appointments.

Refund period – April 2021 – January 2022

27. The Council and the MP’s office are separate organisations, so it would not be reasonable to expect the Council to be aware of the complaints Ms X made to the MP any earlier than when the MP forwarded these complaints to the Council.
28. The Council refunded from the period when it first became aware of the repairs issue – April 2021 - up until the repairs were carried out. The Council was not at fault.

Garage still unusable January 2022 to date

29. The Council should have carried out an inspection of the works done to the garage door once Ms X reported they were faulty and had damaged her car.
30. Ms X made the Council aware of this in April 2022 but the Council has no record of whether an inspection of the works took place. The Council was at fault. This has caused further frustration to Ms X.

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Agreed actions

31. Within one month of the date of this final decision, the Council has agreed to:
• apologise to Ms X for the inconvenience it caused her by failing to attend several appointments in 2021 and for failing to properly manage the post-works inspection it had agreed in June 2022;
• pay Ms X £200 to reflect the avoidable frustration she was caused by the missed appointments in 2021 and the lack of record keeping and follow up action regarding inspecting the works in 2022; and
• carry out an inspection of the work to Ms X’s garage door to determine whether it was done in accordance with plans;
• if the Council’s inspection finds the works were not carried out properly and that this prevented her from using the garage to store her car, the Council should pay Ms X the total sum of the garage lease fees she has paid from January 2022 to date, where the garage has therefore not been fit for use, and cease charging her for the lease of the garage until it is usable again.
32. Within three months of the date of this final decision, the Council has agreed to demonstrate that it has:
• investigated why several appointments were missed in this case and why no records were kept regarding the post-works inspection arranged for June 2022;
• reminded staff of the importance of informing residents when a repairs appointment will be cancelled or changed, in good time, or as soon as possible, as many will have taken time away from work; and
• improved its systems for monitoring outstanding repairs and inspection works to its garages and where works are unduly delayed, developed a process for refunding residents who have been unable to access their garages for long periods of time.
33. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Final decision

34. I have completed my investigation. I have found fault leading to injustice and the Council has agreed to apologise and pay a financial remedy.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman