Summary: Miss X complained the Council failed to take sufficient action to deal with anti-social behaviour and noise nuisance from her neighbour. She also complained the Council wrongly signposted her to the Housing Ombudsman Service when it issued its final response to her complaint. We find the Council was at fault for its communication with Miss X, which caused her frustration. However, it apologised for the injustice caused when it responded to the complaint. We do not recommend anything further. The Council was also at fault for referring Miss X to the Housing Ombudsman Service. This caused Miss X frustration, and she was put to time and trouble referring her complaint to the wrong organisation. The Council has agreed to apologise to Miss X and implement a service improvement.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained the Council failed to take sufficient action to deal with anti-social behaviour (ASB) and noise nuisance from her neighbour. She also says its communication was poor and it failed to keep her properly updated.
2. Miss X also complained the Council wrongly signposted her to the Housing Ombudsman Service when it issued its final response to her complaint.
3. Miss X says the matter has caused distress and upset.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. 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 significant injustice, or that could cause injustice to others in the future we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
5. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
6. 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)
7. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(1), as amended)

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What I have and have not investigated

8. Miss X refers to matters from 2022 and 2023. She initially contacted us in October 2023. We told her the complaint was premature as she had not completed the Council’s complaints process. She then did not contact us again until July 2025. I have exercised discretion to investigate matters from October 2022 to November 2023 (I will refer to matters before October 2022 for contextual purposes). This is because the Council wrongly referred Miss X to the Housing Ombudsman Service when it issued her final response to her complaint in November 2023. The Housing Ombudsman Service told Miss X in July 2025 it did not have jurisdiction to investigate her complaint. Miss X then promptly contacted us.

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How I considered this complaint

9. I considered evidence provided Miss X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
10. Miss X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

Statutory nuisances

11. Under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (EPA), councils have a duty to take reasonable steps to investigate potential ‘statutory nuisances’.
12. Activities a council might decide are a statutory nuisance include noise from premises or vehicles.
13. For the issue to count as a statutory nuisance, it must:

• unreasonably and substantially interfere with the use or enjoyment of a home or other property; and/or
• injure health or be likely to injure health.

14. There is no fixed point at which something becomes a statutory nuisance. Councils rely on suitably qualified officers to gather evidence. Officers may, for example, ask the complainant to complete diary sheets, fit noise-monitoring equipment, or make site visits. Councils will sometimes offer an ‘out-of-hours’ service for people to contact, if a nuisance occurs outside normal working time.
15. Once evidence gathering is complete, a council will assess the evidence. It will consider matters such as the timing, duration, and intensity of the alleged nuisance. Officers will use their professional judgement to decide whether a statutory nuisance exists.
16. Councils can also decide to take informal action if the issue complained about is causing a nuisance, but is not a statutory nuisance. They may write to the person causing the nuisance or suggest mediation.

What happened

17. This chronology provides an overview of key events in this case and does not detail everything that happened.
18. Miss X has reported noise nuisance issues and ASB from her neighbour (Mr Y) to the Council for several years. The Council provided Miss X with diary sheets to record the issues. The nighttime enforcement team started visiting the site in August 2022 when Miss X reported the noise nuisance.
19. The Council reviewed the case in October and November. It decided there was no evidence of a statutory nuisance. It encouraged Miss X to continue reporting the noise.
20. The Council installed noise monitoring equipment in Miss X’s house in November.
21. The Council reviewed the recordings in January 2023. It said there was no evidence of a statutory nuisance on the recordings. Miss X said the noise was still happening. The Council agreed to install the equipment again.
22. The Council installed further noise monitoring equipment in February. It reviewed the recordings in March and decided there was no statutory nuisance.
23. The Council sent a letter to Mr Y in March. It said it was continuing to receive complaints about unacceptable levels of noise.
24. Miss X continued to report the noise to the Council’s nighttime enforcement team. The team continued to visit the site but did not witness a statutory nuisance.
25. The Council spoke to Mr Y about the ongoing issues at the end of April. Mr Y denied being noisy.
26. Miss X sent two letters to the Council in May. She asked when it made a referral to the nighttime enforcement team. She also asked for confirmation on what it had previously told her about using CCTV.
27. The Council spoke to Miss X in late July. It said it was looking at closing her case as it had not found a statutory nuisance. Miss X said she disagreed and said the noise was still ongoing.
28. Miss X complained to the Council in September. She said it had failed to take sufficient action to deal with the ASB and noise nuisance from Mr Y. She also said it had failed to respond to her correspondence from May, and it had failed to visit her as agreed in July. She also said it had not installed the noise monitoring equipment properly.
29. The Council spoke to Miss X at the end of September. Miss X provided the Council with CCTV footage. The Council said there was no noise from the footage. It said it had not identified a statutory nuisance from its ongoing investigations. It said it would close the case.
30. The Council responded to Miss X’s complaint in October. It said when she was reporting the noise from Mr Y it did keep in contact with her. However, there were other occasions when it should have been in more regular contact with her. It apologised for this. It said there was no evidence its officer had agreed to visit her in July. It apologised for failing to respond to her letters from May. Finally, it said it installed the noise monitoring equipment correctly.
31. Miss X remained dissatisfied and referred her complaint to stage two of the Council’s complaints process.
32. The Council issued Miss X with its final response to her complaint in November. It repeated its apologies that it had failed to keep in regular contact with her. However, it said it had acted in line with its procedures and taken appropriate action to deal with her reports of noise nuisance. It signposted her to the Housing Ombudsman Service if she was unhappy with its response.

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Analysis

33. I am satisfied the Council took suitable action to deal with Miss X’s reports of ASB and noise nuisance. It visited the site when Miss X reported noise nuisance. It contacted Mr Y about the issues, and it installed noise monitoring equipment on two occasions. It reviewed the logs, diary sheets and the recordings from the noise monitoring equipment. It decided there was not enough evidence of a statutory nuisance. That was a decision it was entitled to take, even if Miss X strongly disagrees. I do not find fault.
34. The Council has accepted there were some occasions it failed to keep Miss X properly updated. It apologised to Miss X for the frustration caused. I have reviewed the file, and I find there were some occasions when communication should have been better, and the Council should have kept in more regular contact with Miss X. However, the Council’s apologies to Miss X are sufficient to remedy the frustration to her and it is in line with our guidance on remedies. I do not recommend anything further.
35. The Council signposted Miss X to the Housing Ombudsman Service when it responded to her complaint. This is fault. The Housing Ombudsman Service does not have jurisdiction to deal with Miss X’s complaint as she is not a Council tenant. This fault caused Miss X a significant injustice as she was put to time and trouble raising her with complaint with the wrong organisation. The Council should apologise to Miss X and implement a service improvement to prevent a recurrence of the fault.

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Action

36. By 29 April 2026 the Council has agreed to:

• Apologise to Miss X for the injustice caused by fault in this statement.
• Issue written reminders to staff that handle complaints that they should ensure they signpost the complainant to the correct Ombudsman service when they respond to complaints.

37. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

38. There was fault by the Council, which caused Miss X an injustice. The Council has agreed to my recommendations and so I have completed my investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman