Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint the Council failed to act on his reports noise nuisance. There is not enough evidence of fault to justify our involvement.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council had failed to act on his reports of noise nuisance since 2020. He said a neighbour frequently played loud music up to 12 hours a day. He said the Council’s failure to take action against his neighbour had affected his mental health and led to him being isolated. Mr X wants the Council to give his neighbour a warning and to stop the noise nuisance.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. 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)
4. 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. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Mr X complained the Council had failed to act on his reports of noise nuisance since 2020. We expect a person to complain to us within twelve months of the matter they are unhappy with. Mr X did not complain to us until July 2024 therefore the early parts of his complaint are late. We have discretion to set aside this restriction where we decide there are good reasons. In this case, I have considered it was reasonable for Mr X to complain to us sooner if he was unhappy with the Council.
8. Mr X contacted the Council in July 2024 to report noise nuisance. In the Council’s complaint response, it said it had:
• Asked Mr X to complete diary sheets of the nuisance.
• Visited Mr X’s address to check for noise.
• Spoke to another neighbour about the noise.
9. The Council said it did not observe any noise nuisance, nor did Mr X’s neighbour report any concerns with noise. The Council decided to close Mr X’s case but confirmed it had written to his neighbour to inform them it was monitoring the noise. It asked Mr X to report any further concerns to its out-of-hours witness team.
10. Although Mr X is unhappy with the outcome of the Council’s investigation, we will not investigate. The Council has taken steps to investigate his concerns; it has not got sufficient evidence to indicate Mr X’s neighbour is causing a statutory nuisance. It has asked him to report concerns to its out-of-hours team, so it can witness the disturbance. There is not enough evidence of fault to justify our involvement.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify our involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman