London Borough of Southwark (04B05253)

Antisocial behaviour                  Maladministration causing injustice

24 October 2005

‘Mr Kelly’ (not his real name for legal reasons) lived in a downstairs maisonette. He complained to the Council’s neighbourhood housing office about noise and other nuisance from a flat upstairs. The Council took no action to deal with this complaint or a subsequent petition about noise nuisance signed by Mr Kelly and two neighbours. One of Mr Kelly’s upstairs neighbours then complained that she had been subjected to racial abuse by a neighbour. Officers decided that Mr Kelly was responsible, although this was not supported by the evidence available, and it later became clear that one of Mr Kelly’s neighbours was responsible.

The Council referred the matter to its antisocial behaviour unit. There was a delay in taking the complaint up. The officer responsible quickly decided that he could not substantiate the allegation of racial abuse and tried to investigate the allegations of noise nuisance. But there was a succession of tenants in the flat upstairs and each time the tenant changed, evidence had to be collected afresh.

The complaint was investigated by the Council’s housing performance and compliance unit. Mr Kelly complains that this resulted in a whitewash. The officer in charge of the unit now accepts that evidence that emerged during the Ombudsman’s investigation would have led her to change part of her findings.

The Ombudsman found maladministration causing injustice because Mr Kelly had suffered almost a year of avoidable noise nuisance as a result of the Council’s failure to investigate his complaints. The Council agreed to remedy the injustice by:

• apologising to Mr Kelly and paying him £1,000;
• removing the allegations of racial abuse from its files;
• providing training to its staff as appropriate in the operation of its procedures for dealing with neighbour nuisance; and
• taking action to investigate Mr Kelly’s complaints of noise nuisance and remedy any nuisance if practical.

The Ombudsman decided to complete his investigation and issue this report as it illustrated a matter of public interest.

Date Published: 24/04/09