Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of her reports of anti-social behaviour by a neighbour, whose tenancy is managed by the Council. There is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council in the last 12 months to justify our involvement.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council’s handling of her reports of noise and anti-social behaviour by a neighbour, which has added to the distress caused by the neighbour’s behaviour. She wants the Council to evict the neighbour.

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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)
4. We investigate 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 continue an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

What happened

7. Ms X has reported noise and anti-social behaviour (ASB) by her neighbour since 2020 to this Council and to Council B, in whose area the property is located.
8. We understand the neighbour is a tenant of a charitable partnership and that the property is privately owned. We further understand the tenancy is managed by this Council but is located in Council B’s area and Council B is the appropriate authority to address any statutory noise issues.
9. Ms X told us Council B issued a noise abatement order in February 2021 and this Council started eviction proceedings in July 2021, but the neighbour was not evicted and the noise/ASB has continued.
10. In its complaint response in February 2025, the Council said recent noise reports mostly related to noise that was “at acceptable times of day” and that Council B had offered to install noise recording equipment, but Ms X had declined this. The Council also said the charity had contacted the neighbour, who denied playing loud music and visits to the property had not identified unacceptable noise. In the circumstances, there was no grounds for evicting the neighbour.

My assessment

11. We usually expect people to complain to us within 12 months of the events complained about. Ms X complained to us in August 2024 about events from 2020. There is no evidence Ms X could not have complained earlier and no good reasons for deciding to investigate the period prior to August 2023. In any case, it is unlikely we could achieve a worthwhile outcome by investigating the earlier period, given the lapse of time.
12. It was for Council B to consider whether the noise reported amounted to a statutory nuisance and to consider whether to exercise its general powers to address ASB. It has not identified a statutory nuisance in the period under consideration, so has not taken enforcement action against the neighbour, but it has offered to install noise monitoring equipment, which was appropriate.
13. It was for this Council to consider Council’s B’s assessment of the noise and ASB and to decide whether any tenancy management action was needed. It has also considered the actions taken by the charity landlord. Based on the information it had, it decided there were no grounds for evicting the neighbour. There is insufficient evidence of fault in the way the Council considered the action it could take to justify further investigation and it is unlikely that, by doing so, we could add to the Council’s investigation through its complaints process. Further, we could not achieve the outcome Ms X wants, which is for the neighbour to be evicted or rehoused.

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Final decision

14. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because it is partly late and there is insufficient evidence of fault in the period we could consider to justify our involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman