The ombudsman of Tallinn City

Introduction to the ombudsman

Tallinn’s ombudsman is an independent legal mediator – an official who helps city residents and officials understand each other better.

The city council has appointed Toomas Sepp as the city’s ombudsman.

You can contact the ombudsman if you believe that the city government, its institutions or officials have violated:

• your constitutional rights or freedoms or
• good administrative behaviour (e.g.they have been impolite or unfair to you, they have been slow in responding or have not replied to you and/or have given you insufficient information).

The ombudsman does the following things when resolving the issue:

• determines whether the establishment has violated your rights;
• advises you and/or the establishment on what should be done to protect your rights;
• explains the actions of the institutions in case they have remained unclear;
• brings the city institution’s attention to the violation and proposes to end it;
• proposes for the city government or city council to monitor the actions of the institutions if they are still in violation of the rule.

The ombudsman presents  an overview of how to follow the principles that ensure the constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens and good administrative behaviour in the city government and institutions every February.

Please note that:

• the ombudsman does not deal with cases where a court order has entered into force or an internal review or legal proceedings are taking place;
• submitting a claim to the ombudsman does not extend procedural deadlines (such as the deadline to submit your complaint to internal review or court). We recommend that you consider the best and fastest option to solve your issue;
• the ombudsman’s evaluation does not replace other proceedings, such as an inspection carried out by the Chancellor of Justice.

Additional information:

• The Statute of Tallinn (in Estonian)
• The Constitution of the Republic of Estonia
• The European Code of Good Administrative Behaviour
• an overview of the activities of the ombudsman in 2020 (in Estonian)
• examples of appeals to the ombudsman during the years 2013-2018 (in Estonian)