Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council has managed a property he lives next to. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council has failed to maintain a property he lives next to. Mr X says the Council has also failed to deal with his complaints about noise and anti-social behaviour from the people living in the property.
2. Mr X says the Council’s actions have caused him distress and devalued his property.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
4. We cannot investigate complaints about the provision or management of social housing by a council acting as a registered social housing provider. (Local Government Act 1974, paragraph 5A schedule 5, 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. The Council is responsible for managing the property next to Mr X’s home however for the purposes of this complaint it is not considered to be acting as a social housing provider. Therefore, the complaint is within our jurisdiction.
8. The Council has visited the property and found no structural or other repair issues. The Council has also visited the garden and found it to be in a good condition.
9. The Council offered to install noise monitoring equipment in Mr X’s property but he declined. The Council arranged mediation between Mr X and his neighbours to resolve any areas of conflict. The Council says it was not able to identify any examples of anti social behaviour and it received no complaints about the residents of the property from any other neighbouring properties.
10. The Council has responded to Mr X’s concerns and inspected the property, offered to monitor noise and arranged mediation between him and his neighbour. Therefore there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council and we will not investigate this complaint.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman