The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of property at a site adjacent to Ms X’s land. This is because past events concerning the occupation and sale of the property fall outside our jurisdiction due to the passage of time and because we are unlikely to find evidence of fault by the Council in how it has responded to more recent reports of anti-social behaviour at the property.
The complaint
Ms X complains about the Council’s handling of matters relating to the occupation and sale of property adjacent to her property and about its response to anti-social behaviour at the site which is affecting her use of her own property.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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) 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 not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council, including its response to the complaint.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The restriction highlighted at paragraph 3 applies to Ms X’s complaint about past events which occurred in relation to the property in question a number of years ago. As we would reasonably have expected her to have complained to us sooner, the complaint is a late complaint and will not be investigated.
With regards to the Council’s response to reports of anti-social behaviour at the site, the Council has advised Ms X of the additional action it has taken to secure the property by bricking access points and boarding first floor windows and has also confirmed that daily site inspections will be taking place by a mobile security company. It has told Ms X that it is currently working on a commercial development for the site.
We do not investigate every complaint we receive. We will not investigate where we are unlikely to find fault in the way the Council has dealt with matters and in relation to the anti-social behaviour, it has increased the physical security of the building and implemented daily monitoring of the site to try and address the problem.
Final decision
We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because past events concerning the occupation and sale of the property fall outside our jurisdiction due to the passage of time and because we are unlikely to find evidence of fault by the Council in how it has responded to reports of anti-social behaviour at the property.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman