Complaints about neighbour nuisance and anti-social behaviour
This fact sheet is aimed primarily at people who are having problems getting the council to deal with anti-social behaviour from neighbours and may be considering making a complaint to the Ombudsman.
My neighbours are causing me problems with anti-social behaviour, and the council doesn’t seem to be doing anything about it. Can the Ombudsman help me?
- Yes. We can look at how the council has dealt with your requests to do something about your neighbours.
- Councils have duties to investigate excessive noise, anti-social behaviour, intimidation, drunkenness and petty vandalism that affects local communities, and they have powers to take action against people if their behaviour is unacceptable.
- We consider whether the council has done something wrong in the way it went about dealing with your complaints about your neighbours and whether this has caused you problems.
- Councils' powers for dealing with problems between neigbours vary, depending on whether those concerned are council tenants, private tenants, long leasholders or owner occupiers. We take account of this when considering complaints.
How do I complain?
- You should normally complain to the council first. This doesn’t just mean telling council staff about what your neighbours are doing. It means making a formal complaint about the council not taking any action even though you have asked for help. It is important to keep a note of each time you contact the council telling it about your neighbours' behaviour.
- Councils often have more than one stage in their complaints procedure and you will usually have to complete all stages before we will look at your complaint.
- Then, if you are unhappy with the outcome, or the council is taking too long to look into the matter – we think 12 weeks is reasonable – you can complain to us.
- You should normally make your complaint to us within 12 months of realising that the council has done something wrong.
- To complain to the Ombudsman phone our Advice Team on 0300 061 0614 (8.30am to 5.00pm, Mondays to Fridays). You will be able to discuss your complaint with one of our advisers. You can text us on 0762 480 3014.
- You can complete an online complaint form.
If you can consider my complaint what will the Ombudsman look for?
Some of the issues we can look at are that the council:
- didn’t send anyone to visit you to find out about the problems
- asked you to fill in diary sheets but then did nothing with them
- gave you an out-of-hours emergency number but nobody was ever available to come out to witness the nuisance
- accepted that your neighbours were causing problems but didn't do anything to stop them
- didn't assess the level of the noise when you complained, or
- made enquiries for many months and came to no views about what to do while the nuisance continued.
What happens if the Ombudsman finds that the council was at fault?
- We can recommend that the council investigates the issues you are complaining about and takes action if necessary. This might involve: measuring the noise level, carrying out a proper investigation of your complaints, or reconsidering whether legal action should be taken against your neighbours.
- If you have been seriously affected by the behaviour of your neighbours, we might ask the council to pay you compensation for the additional distress and frustration you have suffered as a result of the council's delay in taking action.
- We can also ask the council to review its practices and procedures if it is apparent that they were not followed properly.
- In some cases we may ask the council to liaise with the police and, if necessary, consider taking urgent action.
- But we will not be able to recommend that the council moves your neighbours.
Examples of some complaints we have considered
New neighbours moved next door to Mrs X and she began complaining to the council almost immediately about noise from their property. She made regular complaints for over four months and, although a meeting was arranged with a council officer, it did not take place. Mrs X then sent the council details of other neighbours who had complaints about her neighbour, but the council did not interview Mrs X’s neighbour for another four months. The council had procedures for dealing with such complaints, but failed to follow them. After we became involved the council agreed to pay Mrs X £200 for the delays in dealing with her complaints, to review the way it logs and monitors such complaints, and to arrange training for staff.
Miss C and Miss G were council tenants who complained about the behaviour of their neighbour, Mr B, who had a history of drug and alcohol dependency and anti-social behaviour. They each lived in bedsits served by a communal passageway leading to a communal yard and garden. Shortly after Mr B moved in, one of his friends attacked Miss C’s car and was very aggressive to her. Mr B’s dogs fouled the communal areas and groups of his friends congregated in the communal yard to smoke drugs. The police were aware of the problems. Miss C also complained of attacks by Mr B and his friends on her property, loud music and aggressive and abusive behaviour.
The council had published comprehensive guidance on how to deal with anti social behaviour, but the document had only been circulated as a draft. At the time it dealt with Miss C’s complaint it did not have a procedure in place, relying instead on ‘custom and practice’. The council wrote to Mr B about his behaviour but did not take further action. The council said it was because Miss G and Miss C would not act as witnesses in court, but Miss C and Miss G disputed this. This was a crucial point and the council had no evidence to support its view.
We found the council was at fault because it failed to take decisive action, keep records or have a clear procedure. We recommended that the council should pay £2,250 each to Miss C and Miss G and review the way it responds to neighbour nuisance complaints.
Other sources of information
- Fact sheets En1 "Complaints about noise nuisance" and H9 "Complaints about services to leaseholders" may also be helpful to you.
Our fact sheets give some general information about the most common type of complaints we receive but they cannot cover every situation. If you are not sure whether we can look into your complaint, please phone 0300 061 0614.
The Local Government Ombudsmen provide a free, independent and impartial service. We consider complaints about the administrative actions of councils and some other authorities. We cannot question what a council has done simply because someone does not agree with it. If we find something has gone wrong, such as poor service, service failure, delay or bad advice and that a person has suffered as a result the Ombudsmen aim to get it put right by recommending a suitable remedy.
Date Updated: 05/03/12