Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of his noise nuisance complaint in 2016. This is because the complaint is late and we have seen no good reasons to exercise our discretion to investigate it.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains the Council failed to properly investigate a noise nuisance complaint he raised in 2016.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mr X has previously complained to us about the Council’s decision to issue a completion certificate for building works carried out to his property, which he says do not comply with the Building Regulations. We declined to investigate the complaint because the courts have decided councils do not take on liability for substandard work and because we did not find any evidence of fault by the Council.
7. Mr X has now raised a new complaint about the Council’s handling of his noise nuisance complaint which he originally submitted in 2016. The Council’s response explains the steps it took to investigate his complaint and confirms it provided him with a final response on the issue in February 2017. His complaint is therefore almost four years late.
8. The Ombudsman has discretion to investigate late complaints as set out at Paragraph 3 but I have seen no good reasons to exercise our discretion in this case. If Mr X was unhappy with the Council’s handling of his noise nuisance complaint it would have been reasonable for him to complain to us at the time. The Council confirms its records are no longer complete and the officer who dealt with the case does not remember it in any detail.
9. The Council has also explained to Mr X that it cannot find a statutory nuisance where noise is from normal household activity and where the impact results from substandard building work, in this case soundproofing. While Mr X links this point to his original complaint about the Council’s issue of a completion certificate we have made a final decision not to investigate that matter and will not therefore consider it further.
10. The Council has explained Mr X has the option of taking his own private action for statutory nuisance under Section 82 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and it has provided him with further details of how to pursue a complaint about unauthorised commercial use of a residential property. This provides him with a suitable way to progress the matter.
11. Mr X is also unhappy with the way the Council dealt with his complaint. But it is not a good use of public resources to look at the Council’s complaints handling if we are not going to look at the substantive issue complained about. We will not therefore investigate this issue separately.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because we have already considered and decided Mr X’s building control complaint and his complaint about the Council’s handling of his noise nuisance complaint is late.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman