Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about how the Council has responded to her concerns about large trees in a neighbouring garden, and how it has dealt with her complaint. Ms X’s complaint about the Council up to 2023 is late and there are no good reasons for us to investigate it now. Her complaint about more recent events is premature for us to investigate. We also cannot achieve the outcome Ms X seeks.

The complaint

1. Ms X lives in a house near another property’s garden containing large evergreen trees. She complains the Council has:
1. failed to take seriously and address the problems caused to her by the trees;
2. not understood its role under the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 (‘the 2003 Act’);
3. not understood its role in protecting her right to light;
4. failed to properly deal with her complaint.
2. Ms X wants the Council to cut down the trees or compel the neighbours to do so.

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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. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint unless we are satisfied the organisation knows about the complaint and has had an opportunity to investigate and reply. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to notify the organisation of the complaint and give it an opportunity to investigate and reply. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(5), section 34(B)6)
5. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information from Ms X, online maps and images, and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Ms X raised her concerns with the Council’s parks officers several years ago. The Council replied to the complaint at stage one of its process. It referred her to the process to make a formal ‘high hedges’ complaint to them, as provided under the 2003 Act. Officers told her that if she disagreed with the complaint outcome, to contact them again. Ms X raised her complaint with us instead. We decided the complaint to us was premature because she had not completed the Council’s internal complaint process. We advised Ms X to proceed to the next stage of the Council’s complaints process. We told her that once she had a final stage response, or if she had no final reply after 12 weeks, she could bring the matter back to us. Ms X contacted the Council again and its response referred her to its stage one reply. Ms X did not contact us again until her latest complaint made in August 2025, almost two years after that Council reply. Ms X’s complaints about the Council’s actions or inactions regarding the trees before 2023, and its complaint-handling, are late.
8. We may investigate a late complaint if we decide there are good reasons to do so. The Council advised Ms X in 2023 on how to make an application to get it to consider the trees under the 2003 Act. Ms X did not put in an application. We note Ms X was concerned about the fee required for the high hedges service. The 2003 Act allows councils to charge a fee and it is not fault for them to require one. Once a fee is received, councils should then consider the application. There are no good reasons to investigate this late part of the complaint now. Ms X’s route to get the Council to consider her concerns about the trees as a high hedge has been since 2023, and remains, for her to make an application under the 2003 Act.
9. Ms X says the Council does not understand its role under the ‘right to light’. She recognises in her complaint that right to light issues are dealt with as private civil matters but claims the Council has failed to protect her right by not applying the 2003 Act. The Council has not used the 2003 Act because it has not received a high hedges application from Ms X. The Council’s role in applying the 2003 Act and a private civil dispute about rights to light are separate processes. If Ms X wants to assert her right to light, that would be a private civil case for her to make. Ms X may wish to seek independent advice if she decides to pursue her right to light through a legal process.
10. Ms X has contacted officers at the Council about the trees since 2023. She says the Council agreed to assess the trees and decide whether the tenant of the property with the trees had breached their tenancy. At the time of her complaint to us in August 2025 she says the Council had not updated her on any further action regarding the trees or the tenant. These matters have not formed part of a complaint to the Council. Therefore, this part of the complaint is premature for us to investigate. It is reasonable for Ms X to give officers the opportunity to consider and respond to these matters by making a complaint about them to the Council and completing its internal complaint process. As we advised after her 2023 premature complaint, once she has a final stage Council response and remains dissatisfied, she may wish to bring the matter back to us. If she does this, we will apply our usual tests on whether the complaint is within our powers to investigate.
11. We note Ms X wants the Council to fell the trees or force the tenant to do so. We cannot order councils to cut down trees, or order councils to require other parties to do so. That we cannot achieve the outcome Ms X seeks from her complaint is a further reason why we will not investigate.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because:
• the 2023 complaint is late and there are no good reasons for us to investigate it now; and
• the complaint about more recent events is premature for us to investigate; and
• we cannot achieve the outcome she wants.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman