Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Miss X’s complaint that the Council failed to ensure her neighbour’s compliance with the requirements of the Party Wall Act 1996. This is because the complaint is late and it is not the Council’s responsibility to enforce this legislation.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Miss X, complains the Council failed to ensure her neighbour served a valid Party Wall Notice under the Party Wall Act 1996 before starting work to develop their property. She says this has resulted in noise and damage to her property.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe:

• it is unlikely we would find fault, or
• the fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• it is unlikely we could add to any previous investigation by the Council, or
• it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

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

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 reviewed Miss X’s complaint and the Council’s response. I shared my draft decision with Miss X and considered her comments.

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What I found

5. Miss X’s neighbour started work to develop their property in 2018. She says the Council did not ensure they served notice under the Party Wall Act 1996 before carrying out work near their shared property boundary wall. As a result she says she has suffered damage to her property from leaks and is concerned about possible damp issues. She also experiences noise disturbance.
6. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. Miss X first raised this matter with the Council in 2018 but did not complain to the Ombudsman about it until July 2020; her complaint is therefore late.
7. While the Ombudsman has discretion to investigate late complaints the requirements of the Party Wall Act 1996 are a private civil matter and it is not for the Council to enforce them. Miss X may therefore wish to seek legal advice on the possibility of making a claim against her neighbour through the courts.
8. The Council confirms it had oversight of the building work but that the concerns Miss X has about her neighbour’s work were not covered or controlled by the Building Regulations. In any case, the courts have decided that responsibility for any substandard work rests with those responsible for commissioning and carrying out that work and not with the local authority overseeing it. We could not therefore say the Council must pay to put right any issues with her neighbour’s work.
9. If Miss X wishes to pursue her concerns about noise disturbance further she should raise the matter with the Council’s environmental protection team. They have the expertise to investigate the noise issues Miss X is experiencing and decide whether the noise amounts to a ‘statutory nuisance’ under the Environmental Protection Act 1990. If Miss X is not happy with the Council’s investigate she may complain about this issue specifically. She may also take her own private action against her neighbour if she believes the noise amounts to a nuisance.

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Final decision

10. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because the complaint is late and the Council is not responsible for enforcing the requirements of the Party Wall Act 1996.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman