Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s refusal to erect fencing on an open residential boundary line. There is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation. Additionally, it is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures if we decide not to deal with the substantive issue.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council refused to erect fencing on an open boundary line between her property and a neighbouring council-tenanted property, and about the Council’s handling of her resulting complaint.
2. Mrs X says this caused distress and has created a hazard.
3. Mrs X wants the Council to propose a lasting solution to the open boundary issue and repay her for the cost of temporary fencing she installed.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. We investigate complaints about councils and certain other bodies. Where an individual, organisation or private company is providing services on behalf of a council, we can investigate complaints about the actions of these providers. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(1)(A) and 25(7))
5. 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 no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation, or we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), section 34(B))
6. We will not usually investigate complaint handling if we are not investigating the rest of the complaint. This is because there is not usually enough injustice to justify us doing so. We collect information about particularly poor complaint handling practice and report this back to organisations. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), section 34B(8))

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by Mrs X.
8. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

9. Mrs X’s complaint is a matter of private law, largely directed by Title Deeds, Covenants and the physical history of the land in question.
10. Where there is no provision in place on an open boundary line, there is no legal duty to fence unless keeping livestock.
11. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint. Because we cannot direct the Council to erect a fence on the open boundary line, there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.
12. When responding to Mrs X’s stage two complaint, the Council identified and apologised for shortfalls in its complaint handling. This included delay and providing inaccurate information.
13. Given this, we could not add to the findings the Council has already made by investigating Mrs X’s complaint about complaint procedures.

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Final decision

14. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation, and we could not add to the investigation by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman