Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s response to a neighbour dispute which was dealt with by its adult social care and environmental protection teams. There is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains about the way the Council has dealt with antisocial behaviour concerns involving her neighbour who she describes as a vulnerable adult. Miss X says the Council had refused to acknowledge her concerns because of her neighbour’s vulnerability and disability. She says the Council has failed to visit her neighbour to complete welfare checks despite telling the Council her neighbour targets Miss X and her family by being verbally abusive and intimidating. Miss X says the situation impacted on her and her family’s quality of life as well as the wider community. Miss X feels the Council should be more involved with her neighbour, complete welfare checks and investigate her concerns.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

5. Miss X complained to the Council in April 2025 about issues and concerns relating to her neighbour. She addressed her complaint to the Council’s adult social care and environmental protection teams. Miss X said the Council had failed to intervene in a distressing situation. She also said it had failed to provide support to both her and her neighbour. In summary, Miss X said the Council had failed to provide a reasonable response to protect the public which included young children. She said the Council needed to offer more support and intervention.
6. The Council responded to the complaint and said it had exhausted its public protection responsibilities. It confirmed it had issued a community protection warning to Miss X and her neighbour and had installed noise monitoring equipment. The results from the monitoring equipment did not provide sufficient evidence to support formal enforcement action. It also said it had offered and started mediation but this was unsuccessful. It told Miss X in now considered the issue a civil matter and she should seek legal advice if necessary.
7. It also provided a response from its adult social care team which said despite not being able to share confidential information about the neighbour it had taken reasonable and appropriate steps to address the issues raised and had acted on all concerns received.
8. We will not investigate this complaint as there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. The evidence available now shows the Council has acted on concerns raised by Miss X and had issued warnings to both her and her neighbour. The Council shared limited information with Miss X to confirm how it was supporting her neighbour which may not provide assurance due to the lack of detail. Further investigation is unlikely to lead to a different outcome.

Back to top

Final decision

9. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman