Your complaint to the Ombudsman 
Thank you for contacting us. To help us understand your complaint, if you have not already 
done so, please provide us:
• key dates and any documents about your complaint
• what you hope to achieve from your complaint.
What we do at the Victorian Ombudsman 
The Ombudsman can receive and deal with complaints about most actions and decisions 
of Victorian government bodies, local councils and other publicly-funded organisations. 
We always consider public resources available to us when we assess complaints. We will be 
professional and courteous and expect the same in return. More information about what 
you can expect when dealing with our office is in our Service Delivery Charter.
What we do not do 
We do not investigate every complaint we receive. 
• We cannot investigate private businesses, police, or the courts. 
• We may decide your complaint should be referred elsewhere. 
• We will not usually consider complaints about matters that happened more than  
12 months ago. 
We must not deal with your complaint, except in limited circumstances, if:
• You had or have a right of review to a court or a tribunal, such as for most fines and 
planning matters.
• It is about employment.
Our complaint process 
First, we will try to resolve your complaint quickly, in 30 days. We may: 
• review your documents 
• look at legislation, policies or procedures 
• ask the organisation you have complained about for more information. 
Second, if we cannot resolve your complaint quickly, we may transfer it to another 
complaints team. We will contact you about the outcome of your complaint within 90 days.

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