Summary: The Council failed to properly deal with Mrs B’s complaints about anti-social behaviour. The Council has agreed to apologise, properly deal with her complaints, and take action to prevent similar failings in future.

The complaint

1. Mrs B complains that the Council has failed to properly deal with her complaints about anti-social behaviour.

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What I have investigated

2. I have considered the action the Council has taken to deal with Mrs B’s complaints of anti-social behaviour, and I have investigated the way it has dealt with her formal complaints about the matter. The last section of this statement explains why I have not investigated any matters relating to Mrs B’s neighbour’s tenancy with the Council.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. We cannot investigate complaints about the provision or management of social housing by a council acting as a registered social housing provider. (Local Government Act 1974, paragraph 5A schedule 5, as amended)
5. If we are satisfied with a council’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I have:
• considered the complaint and the documents provided by the complainant;
• made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council has provided; and
• given the Council and the complainant the opportunity to comment on my draft decision.

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What I found

The law

7. The Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 defines anti-social behaviour as:
• conduct that has caused, or is likely to cause, harassment, alarm or distress to any person,
• conduct capable of causing nuisance or annoyance to a person in relation to that person’s occupation of residential premises, or
• conduct capable of causing housing-related nuisance or annoyance to any person.
8. Councils have duties to investigate anti-social behaviour and powers to take action against people if their behaviour is unacceptable.

Key events and analysis

9. In January 2018, Mrs B contacted the Council’s anti-social behaviour team. She said that two boys had smashed a printer and thrown it over a wall and her neighbour had thrown rubbish in her front and back gardens and milk shake over her car.
10. The Council told Mrs B that the incidents did not amount to harassment. It advised her to keep a log of any incidents and to call the police if she felt threatened in any way. The Council’s anti-social behaviour team did not receive any further reports from Mrs B.
11. In June 2018, Mrs B contacted the Council’s tenancy management team about her neighbour, who is a council tenant. She said her neighbour’s fence had come down and her neighbour’s dog was getting through and defecating in her garden. The Council’s tenancy management team took some action to deal with the matter. I have not investigated this for the reasons explained in the last section of this statement.
12. In December 2018, Mrs B telephoned the Council’s tenancy management team about various issues relating to her neighbour. She said that two of her fence panels had come down and there was an exposed wire leading from her neighbour’s garden. Mrs B also alleged that her neighbour was putting rubbish down the drain causing her toilet to become blocked and that she was mimicking Mrs B’s disability and making inappropriate suggestions to her husband. Mrs B telephoned the Council again in January 2019 because it had not contacted her following her call in December.
13. Mrs B then made a formal complaint to the Council about it not taking action against her neighbour. She also provided further details about the anti-social behaviour she had been experiencing.
14. In the Council’s response, it said that it had only received one complaint about anti-social behaviour from Mrs B in January 2018. It did not refer to the complaints she had made to the Council’s tenancy management team in June 2018 or December 2018. This was fault. I consider the Council should have been able to locate the calls Mrs B made to the tenancy management team, particularly considering Mrs B stated in her complaint that she had contacted both the anti-social behaviour team and the housing team.
15. In the Council’s response to Mrs B’s complaint, it said that officers from its anti-social behaviour team would look into the matters she had raised relating to the live wire and the dog faeces in her garden. In relation to Mrs B’s allegation that her neighbour’s behaviour was intimidating, it explained that it would need hard evidence for it to be able to take any action and it asked her to report any incidents to its anti-social behaviour team.
16. The Council did not acknowledge all the matters Mrs B had raised in her formal complaint, such as stones being thrown at her car from her neighbour’s garden, her neighbour mimicking her disability, her video evidence of her neighbour sweeping rubbish or the missing fence panels. This was fault.
17. Mrs B wrote to the Council again and provided details of the telephone calls she made in December 2018 and January 2019. She complained that the Council had not responded to most of the matters she had raised in her complaint.
18. In the Council’s final response, it said that it had not received any complaints from Mrs B about anti-social behaviour in December 2018. It again failed to recognise that Mrs B had reported the anti-social behaviour to the Council’s tenancy management team.
19. The Council said that officers from its anti-social behaviour team and tenancy management team would be carrying out a joint visit in relation to her concerns about the live wire, the missing fence panels and the dog accessing her garden. It again failed to acknowledge or respond to all the matters Mrs B had raised in her complaints.

Injustice

20. The Council’s failings in this case would have left Mrs B feeling that her complaints were not being taken seriously. It is also possible that Mrs B would not have continued to experience problems with her neighbour if the Council had properly dealt with her complaints.
21. I consider the Council should offer to visit Mrs B to go through all of her complaints and then write to her to explain what action it intends to take, along with its reasons. It should also apologise for the failings identified in this case.

Agreed action

22. Within four weeks, the Council will:
• apologise to Mrs B for the failings identified in this case;
• offer to visit Mrs B to go through her complaints, and then within two weeks of the visit, write to Mrs B to explain the action it intends to take, along with its reasons.
23. Within eight weeks, the Council will review its procedures so that information is properly shared between the anti-social behaviour team and the tenancy management team.

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Final decision

24. I have completed my investigation and uphold Mrs B’s complaint. There was fault by the Council which caused injustice to Mrs B. The action the Council has agreed to take is sufficient to remedy that injustice.

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Parts of the complaint that I did not investigate

25. Where a council is satisfied that one of its tenants is responsible for anti-social behaviour, it can take action for a breach of the tenancy conditions and ultimately can seek possession of the property. I have not investigated any action the Council has taken which relates to Mrs B’s neighbour’s tenancy with the Council. This is because the Ombudsman does not have jurisdiction to investigate complaints about the management of social housing. If Mrs B would like to complain about the action the Council has taken, as her neighbour’s landlord, she may wish to make a complaint to the Housing Ombudsman, who has jurisdiction to investigate such complaints.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman