Summary: Ms X complains about her neighbour’s claim of adverse possession of land. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint because this is a private matter and there is no evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains about her neighbour’s claim of adverse possession of land.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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, or
• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

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

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 the complainant and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
6. I considered the complainant’s comments on my draft decision.

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My assessment

7. Ms X says that her neighbours have claimed adverse possession of land owned by her and the Council. She complained in early 2020 about fly tipping by the neighbour. The Council says this was considered to be a boundary dispute at the time. Nevertheless, this part of the complaint is out of time.
8. The Council says that any dispute about ownership of land is a private matter and can be considered by the Land Registry. They confirm that there have been no changes to the land owned by the Council.
9. I am satisfied that the actions of the neighbour in dispute with Ms X are a private matter and not for the Council. In the absence of fault by the Council, the Ombudsman cannot investigate this complaint.

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Final decision

10. I do not intend to investigate this complaint because there is no evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman