Regulator may decide to take no action on complaint
(1) The Regulator, after investigating a complaint received in terms of section 73, may decide to take no action or, as the case may be, require no further action in respect of the complaint if, in the Regulator's opinion— (a) the length of time that has elapsed between the date when the subject matter of the complaint arose and the date when the complaint was made is such that an investigation of the complaint is no longer practicable or desirable; (b) the subject matter of the complaint is trivial; (c) the complaint is frivolous or vexatious or is not made in good faith; (d) the complainant does not desire that action be taken or, as the case may be, continued; (e) the complainant does not have a sufficient personal interest in the subject matter of the complaint; or (f) in cases where the complaint relates to a matter in respect of which a code of conduct is in force and the code of conduct makes provision for a complaints procedure, the complainant has failed to pursue, or to pursue fully, an avenue of redress available under that complaints procedure that it would be reasonable for the complainant to pursue.
(2) Notwithstanding anything in subsection (1), the Regulator may in its discretion decide not to take any further action on a complaint if, in the course of the investigation of the complaint, it appears to the Regulator that, having regard to all the circumstances of the case, any further action is unnecessary or inappropriate.
(3) In any case where the Regulator decides to take no action, or no further action, on a complaint, the Regulator must inform the complainant of that decision and the reasons for it.
What this means for your estate
- Subsection (1) lists six grounds the Regulator can use to decline a complaint, delay, triviality, bad faith, the complainant's own choice, lack of personal interest, or failure to first use an available code-of-conduct process, but subsection (3) still requires the Regulator to explain its reasoning to the complainant.
- This section is a filter on the Regulator's side, not a compliance obligation on the estate, it doesn't change what you need to do under Chapters 1-9, only whether a given complaint proceeds.
PopiGuard doesn't rely on complaints being screened out under s.77, the compliance program is built to hold up whether or not a given complaint proceeds.