Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a change of address because we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, and further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

The complaint

1. Ms Y complained the Council changed her property house number and have refused to alter it to the original address she used to purchase the property. She is also unhappy with the Council’s handling and responses to her complaint.
2. Ms Y says this means her documentation, such as her mortgage certificate, shows her address differently to the Council’s records. She says the issue has caused her considerable upset and worry as well as time she has taken to deal with the issue.

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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:

• 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))

4. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information Ms Y provided and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. When Ms Y bought her new build property, she purchased a property which at that time was given a house number of A. She had a local authority search completed on the property under this address in 1992. The Council later assigned the house number as B. Consequently, Ms Y’s documentation to show she owns the property has an incorrect address on it.
7. The correspondence shows Ms Y became aware of this in 2021 and contacted the Council to ask for the address to be corrected on its records. Ms Y says she has since contacted the Council several times to try to resolve the issue but has either not received a reply or has not received a satisfactory response.
8. As part of its complaint response the Council has told Ms Y that she can request an Address Confirmation Document from the Council, which she can use to correct any documentation, such as details with the Land Registry. It has provided her with the details of how she can do this within its letter responding to her complaint. It has also said that the documents Ms Y has provided are not a confirmation of her address as being assigned as property number A.
9. As she remained dissatisfied with the Council’s response, including its refusal to change the house number to that shown on her documentation, Ms Y approached us.

Analysis

10. Where newly built properties are initially purchased, it may be that a property number has not yet been allocated. This can lead to a property number being listed on a plan, but later allocated differently by councils. This is a power which the Council has in relation to assigning addresses for new build properties and would not be considered fault.
11. Further, as the property was built in the 1990s, it is unlikely, were we to investigate, it is unlikely records would be available for us to base a decision on.
12. In such situations, where a property is assigned a different number to that on a plan, a property owner can request an Address Confirmation Document from the Council, which can then be provided to other agencies such as the Land Registry to correct any documents.
13. The Council has provided Ms Y with details about how she can request an Address Confirmation Document. As this is the process Ms Y needs to use to correct the address on her records, whether the Council were at fault or not, further investigation is unlikely to lead to a different outcome.
14. Ms Y has also made further complaints which relate to the Council’s response to her complaint, including delays in responding, an alleged lack of investigation. As we are not investigating the substantive issue, it is not a good use of public resources to investigate how the Council dealt with the complaint. We will not investigate.

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Final decision

15. We will not investigate Ms Y’s complaint because we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, and further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman