Appeal against a decision from the municipality

Are you wondering how to proceed to appeal a decision you have received from the municipality? Here you will find information about the various appeal options with the municipality. Get good advice on what a complaint should contain, how to write a complaint, and to which body the complaint should be sent.

Complaints concerning the following should be directed to the municipality:

• Care allowance
• Relief
• BPA
• Support contact
• HC certificate/parking permit
• Home nursing
• Children's home

The procedure when complaining to the municipality

If you have received a decision from the municipality that you disagree with, you can appeal. All decisions from the municipality must describe how you can appeal, where the appeal should be sent and the appeal deadline.   

First round of complaints: The first complaint should be sent to the department in the municipality that wrote the decision you are complaining about. Here the municipality will consider whether they will uphold the decision (not change anything), or whether they will grant you a right (accept your complaint and change it to a new and better decision). If your complaint is not granted or only partially granted, see the next point.

Second round of complaints: If your complaint is not upheld or only partially upheld, the municipality will forward your complaint – including all attachments – to the State Administrator. You will then receive written notice from the municipality that your complaint is being forwarded to the State Administrator. We recommend that you yourself monitor that your complaint is being sent to the State Administrator and that the State Administrator has received all attachments that are relevant to the case. On the State Administrator's homepage you will find contact information for all the country's State Administrators. The outcome with the State Administrator may be that your complaint is upheld. The State Administrator will then either request the municipality to change the decision in your favor or that the State Administrator directly grants the complaint and changes the decision without sending it back to the municipality. If the State Administrator confirms the municipality's decision, it means that your complaint will be rejected. Both you and the municipality will be notified of the State Administrator's decision in writing, and this decision cannot be appealed (however, see complaint to the Civil Ombudsman further down this page).

Where do I register the complaint?

If you wish to appeal a decision you have received from the municipality, you can send the appeal either by post or digitally. The address to which the appeal can be sent must be stated in the decision from the municipality. If it is not stated, call and ask which address the appeal should be sent to. If you wish to send the appeal digitally, you can do this via secure message on the municipality's website. The appeal must contain the reference number that was in the decision you are appealing against as well as the name and date of birth of the child.                        

Tips on how to write a complaint                                                                     

• When you write a complaint to the municipality, you do not need a separate form; you can create your own Word document or write it by hand. See a suggestion for a complaint layout below. 
• It is not always easy to articulate what it is that you disagree with in the decision you have received. Our best tip when writing a complaint is to be as specific and clear as possible. Try to stay objective, without emotionally driven arguments or claims. A good complaint does not mean that it has to be a long complaint. The most important thing is the content of the complaint.
• If you have not previously created a daily cycle, you should do so and attach it to the complaint.
• Attach all documents/statements from, for example, a doctor, habilitation, health center, physiotherapist, social worker or other relevant agencies that shed light on the case. In the complaint, you can refer to individual statements from the attachments. However, it is important that what you refer to is relevant to the case.
• Although it is an advantage to base the complaint legally (referring to laws), it is usually not a requirement. Instead of spending time finding what you believe is the correct legal provision, you should concentrate on describing what you believe is incorrect and what the consequences of that must be. This is the most important thing.
• Finally: Remember to date and sign the complaint before sending it.

Remember the appeal deadline!

Don't forget the appeal deadline. It is important to comply with the appeal deadline in order for the appeal to be considered and processed. We recommend starting the appeal as soon as you have received the decision you wish to appeal. It often takes longer to write an appeal than you had anticipated. The usual appeal deadline in the municipality is 3-4 weeks, but you can ask the municipality for an extension of the appeal deadline. If you are granted this, it is important to get this in writing. There is no guarantee that you will be granted an extension of the appeal deadline, so do not wait to write your appeal in the hope of an extension of the appeal deadline.

Help writing a complaint

The municipality has a duty to provide guidance and should guide you on how to submit a complaint if you ask for help. They should also be able to help you write a complaint. This follows from the administrative bodies' duty to provide guidance. Here it says:

According to Section 11 of the Public Administration Act, administrative bodies have a duty to provide guidance within their area of responsibility. The duty to provide guidance means that, for example, the municipality or the central administrative authority shall provide guidance on applicable laws and regulations and common practice in a given area of responsibility. Information should also be provided on the rules for case processing, in particular on your rights and obligations under the Public Administration Act. If possible, the administrative body (the municipality in this case) should also provide information on circumstances that may have an impact on the outcome of your case. If you were to contact, for example, the central administrative authority instead of the municipality for help, the person who receives your inquiry should inform you that you have contacted the wrong authority. You should also receive information on who/where to contact in order to get in touch with the correct authority.

• Løvemammaene have prepared various templates. As member in Løvemammaene, you get access to these in our closed intranet (membership system), which is called Spark. 
• The Patient and User Ombudsman in your county. They provide free assistance. Read more about the Patient and User Ombudsman here.
• Lawyer: Find lawyers who specialize in the field you want to complain about. This is expensive if you do not meet the conditions for free legal aid. Read more about free legal aid here.

Your expenses for complaint processing

If you choose to use a lawyer to appeal a decision, you can claim reimbursement of your legal fees if your appeal is upheld.

Should you choose to spend time complaining or not?

Our clear recommendation is that it is definitely worth spending time on an appeal if you disagree with the decision. The case will also hopefully be better informed than it originally was if you appeal. The extra argument that can tip the case in your favor may lie in the appeal you write.

If you are very tired, do not have the resources or time to write a thorough complaint, the sentence "the decision is appealed" will still be sufficient. In that case, the agency must process the complaint with the information they already have.

I have submitted the complaint, what now?

If the municipality upholds the decision after having processed your complaint, the complaint shall be forwarded to the State Administrator. The municipality will forward the complaint to the State Administrator for you, but you will receive copies of the submission in the mail. The State Administrator will thus request the municipality to change the decision in the complainant's favor, directly grant the complaint and change the decision without sending it back to the municipality, or confirm the municipality's decision. You do not have the opportunity to appeal to the State Administrator again against the State Administrator's decision.

Klage til Sivilombudet

Sivilombudet er oppnevnt av Stortinget for å ivareta den enkeltes rettigheter i møte med forvaltningen. Du kan klage til Sivilombudet hvis du mener å ha vært utsatt for urett eller feil fra den offentlige forvaltningen. Dette kan for eksempel være hvis du mener at et vedtak eller en avgjørelse er feil, eller at saken din har vært behandlet på en uriktig eller uforsvarlig måte av myndighetene. Du kan ikke klage til Sivilombudet før alle klagemulighetene i forvaltningen er benyttet. Det er gratis å klage til Sivilombudet.

Dersom du ikke er enig i statsforvalterens endelige vedtak (som ikke kan påklages), har du fortsatt mulighet til å sende en klage til Sivilombudet. Klagen til Sivilombudet må skje innen et år etter Statsforvalteren sin avgjørelse.  

Vi har erfaring med at Sivilombudet opptrer uavhengig og rettferdig i behandling av sine klager. Sivilombudet kan sende en oppfordring til Statsforvalteren om å behandle saken på nytt om det kommer fram saksbehandlingsfeil.

Utfyllende informasjon om hva man kan klage på og informasjon om Sivilombudet finner du here.

On this On this page you will find information about what the complaint should contain and the necessary attachments. In addition, the complaint can be sent electronically via that page.

If you are a member of Løvemammaene, you can download an example of a complaint form in our closed intranet for members. This can be used for most complaints. 

Løvemammaene hope that anyone who feels unfairly treated or has been affected by procedural errors by an administrative agency will find their inner strength to file a complaint. Good luck!

Dette skrivet ble sist oppdatert 06.09.26