Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s late complaint about anti-social behaviour from a council owned property. This is because there is not a good reason for the delay in Mrs X complaining to us, and the matter would in any event be better considered by the court.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained the Council failed to manage and regulate the usage of a council-owned property which adjoined her family home which had been operating as a sports club.
2. Mrs X said this caused significant emotional distress for the family and subsequent practical and financial consequences. She wanted the Council to:
1. formally apologise;
2. enforce the lease conditions and take action to address her concerns;
3. review its internal policies; and
4. acknowledge her status as joint freeholder of adjoining properties.

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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 when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)

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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. Mrs X complained to the Council about the matters listed above.
8. Mrs X sent a Letter Before Action to the Council in late 2025 saying that it had failed to investigate noise complaints and address the nuisance between 2023 and late 2024.
9. We will not normally investigate late complaints where it has taken someone more than 12 months from becoming aware of an issue to complain to the ombudsman.
10. The Council has confirmed that the sports club have not had use of the property since December 2024, so any complaints made by Mrs X would have related to events before this date. There is no good reason why Mrs X could not have bought this matter to the Ombudsman sooner, for this reason we will not investigate this complaint.
11. In any event, Mrs X’s Letter Before Action makes clear she is seeking £21,000 in damages from the Council in redress of the issues she has raised. This matter would be better suited for consideration by the courts, because we could not achieve this outcome. We cannot recommend significant amounts of compensation for distress in the way the courts can, nor is it our role to assess economic losses such as loss of earnings.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because it is late and would be better considered by the court.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman