Neighbour nuisance and anti-social behaviour
This fact sheet is aimed primarily at people having problems getting the council to deal with anti-social behaviour near their homes and who may be considering making a complaint to the Ombudsman.
My neighbours are causing me problems with anti-social behaviour, and the council doesn’t seem to be doing anything about it. Can the Ombudsman help me?
In many cases, yes. Councils have a range of powers to tackle anti-social behaviour, such as vandalism and intimidation, and nuisances, such as noise or pollution. If you report an issue like this to the council, it has a duty to consider your report, and decide whether it justifies further investigation and/or enforcement.
If you do not believe it has responded properly to your report(s), you should first make a formal complaint to the council. If you remain dissatisfied after that, we may be able to investigate. Our investigation will look at whether the council has properly considered the evidence about the problems you have reported, and whether it has properly considered what its response should be.
However, by law we cannot investigate how councils have acted in their role as a social landlord. So, if you are complaining about a neighbour who is a council tenant, we can consider how the council has used its general nuisance and anti-social behaviour powers, but not whether it should (for example) evict them for a breach of their tenancy agreement.
You may instead be able to complain to the Housing Ombudsman Service (HOS) about how the council has considered its powers as a social landlord, but only if you are also a council tenant yourself. Under some circumstances, we have the power to carry out a joint investigation with the HOS, where a complaint is about how a council has used both its general powers, and its powers as a social landlord.
How do I complain?
The council’s policy should say how long it will take to respond. Our Complaint Handling Code says councils should have no more than two stages in a complaint process. The longest a complaint should take is 16 weeks.
The council should provide you with updates on your complaint, including when it may take longer to respond.
If your complaint is not making any progress, you can follow our top tips for making a complaint to find out what is happening.
If you complained more than 16 weeks ago, and you have not received a final response, we may be able to make enquiries about what is happening to your complaint. You should have tried to ask the council what is happening before contacting us about any delay.
If the council has sent you a final response (usually saying something like ‘this is our final response’) and you are unhappy with the outcome, you can complain to us.
You should normally make your complaint to us within 12 months of realising that the council has done something wrong.
If you can consider my complaint what will the Ombudsman look for?
Some of the issues we can look at include the council:
- taking too long to respond to your reports of nuisance or anti-social behaviour
- failing to make reasonable efforts to gather evidence about the problem, such as not visiting your home, or not using recording equipment
- not properly considering the evidence it has gathered
- accepting your neighbours were causing problems but not doing anything to stop them,
- applying conditions you must meet which go beyond what the law says
- not communicating properly about action it would or would not take, orfailing to properly consider all options, including its formal and informal powers.
What happens if the Ombudsman finds that the council was at fault?
We can recommend that the council investigates the issues you are complaining about and take action if necessary. This might involve: measuring the noise level, carrying out a proper investigation of your complaints, or reconsidering whether legal action should be taken against your neighbours.
We can ask the council to review its practices and procedures if it is clear they were not followed properly.
In some cases, we might ask the council to make you a payment for the additional distress and frustration you suffered as a result of the council's delay in taking action.
We will not be able to recommend the council moves your neighbours or starts legal action against them.
Examples of complaints we have considered
Over time, the council visited the neighbours, told them to reduce the noise from the property and issued them with a community protection warning (CPW). It said if things did not improve, it would consider taking court action and issuing a community protection notice (CPN). The council installed noise monitoring equipment at Mrs D’s property but said the evidence gathered did not show a statutory noise nuisance.
Mrs D told the Council the neighbours had consistently broken the terms of the CPW. The council drafted a CPN but did not issue it due to action the police was soon intending to take.
Mrs D told the council she was unhappy with how it was dealing with the case. It signposted her to the ASB case review process. It also held a joint meeting with the police and enforcement officers to decide what to do with the ongoing ASB. It created an action plan and agreed to serve a CPN after police had issued a warrant for drug possession at the property.
Mrs D then complained to the council about how it had handled the situation. The council refused to investigate her complaint. After issuing further CPW letters and CPNs to the neighbours, and after Mrs D had brought her complaint to the Ombudsman, the council agreed to investigate her complaint. It then issued another action plan to tackle the ongoing issues.
Mrs D then moved out of her house. The council later issued a final complaint response to Mrs D. It accepted some delays in dealing with the ASB and responding to her complaint. It apologised and offered her £500 for the distress caused which Mrs D accepted.
Mr B complained that the council had not properly considered the evidence of antisocial behaviour and harassment by his neighbours. He sent sound recordings to the Police who found no evidence to corroborate Mr B’s allegations. Mr B then approached the council and it held a mulit-agency panel known as a community trigger review. The panel considered Mr B’s allegations, what had been done so far and what else local bodies could do. As a result of the panel, the council analysed a sample of Mr B’s recordings alongside the Police, in a technical sound facility. The council could hear various background noises such as noise from traffic and birds, as well as noise from Mr B himself, but it could not hear noise from his neighbour. The council met with Mr B to discuss his concerns and then installed its own noise monitoring equipment. However, again, the council officers could not hear the noise Mr B had reported in that time frame.
The council decided that there was no evidence of antisocial behaviour by Mr B and so it could not take any further action. Mr B disagreed with the council’s decision. We found that there was no fault in how the council had reached its decision because it had properly analysed its own evidence and that submitted by Mr B.
Other sources of information
Our fact sheet about noise nuisance may also be helpful.
You can contact the Housing Ombudsman Service at www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk/ by telephone on 0300 111 3000, or online at https://www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk/residents/bring-your-complaint-to-the-housing-ombudsman/
The Citizens Advice website explains the options you have to pursue a neighbour nuisance complaint: www.citizensadvice.org.uk/housing/problems-where-you-live/neighbour-disputes
Our fact sheets give some general information about the most common type of complaints we receive but they cannot cover every situation. If you are not sure whether we can look into your complaint, please contact us.
April 2025