Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to ensure the complainant’s right of access across her neighbour’s property is always clear. We cannot consider complaints about the Council’s management of its social housing. And we cannot achieve the outcome the complainant is seeking.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council refuses to ensure her next door neighbour (who is a Council tenant) allows her right of access around his property.
2. She wants:
• The Ombudsman to confirm she has a legal right way around her neighbour’s home.
• The Council to erect a fence in her neighbour’s garden and ensure her neighbour always keeps the access clear.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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)

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 we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

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

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

8. Ms X says the deeds to her home provide for a right of access around her neighbour’s property which belongs to the Council.
9. She wants the Council to erect a fence on her neighbour’s property and ensure she has access at all times.
10. The neighbour is a Council tenant. The law says we cannot consider complaints concerning the management of social housing by a council acting as a registered social housing provider.
11. Ms X wants us to confirm she has a legal right of access as provided by her deeds. It is not our role to adjudicate disputed legal matters. If the Council is not complying with legal requirements as stated in her deeds, Ms X can seek her own legal advice on this matter.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because:
• We cannot consider concerns about the way the Council manages its social housing; and
• We cannot confirm whether she has a legal right of access across her neighbour’s property.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman