Summary: Ms X complained about the Council’s failure to take her complaints about nuisance from her neighbours seriously in 2015. She also complains about its actions against her for nuisance in 2017 and 2018 which ended in her being summonsed in the Magistrates Court. The Ombudsman will not exercise his discretion to investigate this complaint. The matters took place more than 12 months before the complainant complained to us and were subject to a right of appeal to a court and subsequently to court proceedings.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Ms X, complains about the Council failing to take sufficient action over complaints about nuisance from her neighbours in 2015. In the following years the Council served her with a Community Protection Warning and subsequently a Community protection Notice in relation to her behaviour with neighbours. She was acquitted of the charges in the Notice in a court hearing in 2019 but she had sold her home and moved away by this time. She says she should be compensated for the Council’s failure to act properly over the complaints and the loss of value of her home.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. We cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I have considered all the information which Ms X submitted with her complaint.

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What I found

5. Ms X complained in 2016 to the Council about her neighbours keeping ducks and chickens in their garden causing noise and bonfires to burn waste. She also complained about another neighbour who was also a housing association tenant. She was involved in a multi-agency review of the situation, but the case was subsequently closed.
6. In 2017 the Council served her with a Community Protection Warning because of complaints about her behaviour. In May 2018 she received a Community Protection Notice which stated she could be prosecuted for a criminal offence if she broke the terms of the notice. The Council also made a safeguarding referral over concerns about her mental health. Social Services did not take the matter further, but her GP was alerted to the concerns.
7. The Ms X did not appeal the Notice and in October 2018 she received a summons to the Magistrates Court for breaching the order. At a court hearing in 2019 she was acquitted of the breaches. She had already sold her home in 2018 and says this was at a loss because she wanted a quick sale to move from her neighbours.
8. The Ombudsman can normally only consider complaints about matters which took place within 12 months prior to them complaining to us. In this case the complaints and investigations about nuisance by her neighbours took place in 2016 and 2017. This is outside the normal 12-month period for considering complaints. The Community protection Warning was also served as long ago as 2017. The Community protection Notice carried a right of appeal and she would have been advised to pursue this had she complained within 12 months to us.
9. The Ombudsman cannot consider what happened in a court and so we cannot look at her complaints about the court hearing in 2019 concerning a Community Penalty.

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Final decision

10. The Ombudsman will not exercise his discretion to investigate this complaint. The matters took place more than 12 months before the complainant complained to us and were subject to a right of appeal to a court and subsequently to court proceedings.

Investigator’s final decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman