Southampton City Council (18 016 705)
Category : Environment and regulation > Antisocial behaviour
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 08 May 2019
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: Mrs X complains the Council has failed to make her neighbour stop fumes from his boiler entering her home. The Ombudsman will not investigate her complaint. This is because it is made too late. And we have not seen any evidence of fault in the Council’s actions.
The complaint
- Mrs X complains the Council will not do anything to stop fumes from her neighbour’s boiler from entering her home.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
- We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered the information provided by Mrs X. She provided further information after receiving my draft version of this decision.
What I found
- Mrs X reported her concerns to the Council in 2014. The Council inspected the property. In 2015, it wrote to Mrs X confirming her neighbour’s boiler was installed legally. And that it is operating safely and efficiently. It confirmed there is no statutory nuisance and the Council therefore cannot take any action.
Final decision
- I will not investigate this complaint. This is because it is too late. And there is no evidence of fault in the way the Council considered her complaint and decided not to take any action.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman