Summary: We will not investigate the Council’s handling of Miss X’s complaints about suffering noise from a dog barking and anti-social behaviour. This is because the complaint is late - about what happened from 2020 to 2023 - and there are no good reasons for us to investigate now.

The complaint

1. In short, Miss X complains about the way the Council handled her complaints about suffering noise nuisance from dog barking and anti-social behaviour from 2020 - 2023.
2. Miss X says she was diagnosed with medical conditions because of the noise and had to sell her home losing £106k on her property sale. Miss X would like to be paid compensation for her time and trouble taken when dealing with the Council.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

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:

• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organization. (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 which includes the Council’s responses.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Miss X received comprehensive complaint responses from the Council last year which found:

• noise monitoring equipment installed in 2023 did not find evidence of a statutory noise nuisance
• the Council’s anti-social behaviour team found no evidence of anti-social behaviour: the team established that Miss X’s complaint about her neighbour parking outside her property was being dealt with by the Police and the Police had organised a Community Resolution between Miss X and her neighbour
• Miss X was advised to take her own action under section 82 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990

8. We will not investigate. This is because the complaint is late, caught by the time bar on Ombudsman’s powers. It was reasonable to expect Miss X to complain to us within 12 months of her becoming aware of the matters she is raising with us, instead of nearly two years later.
9. And there are no good reasons for us to investigate, even if we decided to exercise discretion, as we are unlikely to add to the Council’s investigation given the lack of supporting evidence for Miss X’s allegations.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because the complaint is late and there are no good reasons to investigate.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman