Summary: We will not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to take action against its tenant for anti-social behaviour over a four-year period. This complaint was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. There is no evidence to suggest that Mrs X could not have complained to us sooner.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained about the Council placing a tenant with a history of neighbour problems next to her in 2020. She says she has been complaining about anti-social behaviour to the Council housing authority since 2021 and that it has taken no action against the tenancy of her neighbour in this time. She wants the Council to remove her neighbour for breaches of tenancy conditions to prevent further distress she has caused.

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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)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. Mrs X says she has been complaining about the behaviour of her neighbour since 2021. She has involved the Police and also solicitors with regard to a path near her home which caused neighbour disputes. She says the Council promised her and the Police in 2022 that it was considering action against her neighbour’s tenancy but nothing has been done.
6. Mrs X made a formal complaint in 2023 and in July that year the Council advised her to complain to us if she remained dissatisfied. Mrs X complained to us in August 2024.
7. The time for receiving complaints is from when someone became aware of the matter they wish to complain about, not when they complained to the Council or it issued its final response. We would expect someone to complain to us within a year, even if they were dissatisfied with the time the complaints procedure was taking. Mrs X has bene aware of her neighbours actions and has bene reporting them for the last three years to the Council. There I have seen no evidence to suggest that she could not have complained to us sooner.
8. We have some discretion to consider older complaints but in this case even had Mrs X complained to us sooner, we cannot investigate the actions of social housing landlords in tenancy management matters. This jurisdiction passed to the Housing Ombudsman service in 2013.

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Final decision

9. We will not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to take action against its tenant for anti-social behaviour over a four-year period. This complaint was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. There is no evidence to suggest that Mrs X could not have complained to us sooner.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman