Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about anti-social behaviour. All parts of the complaint were raised as part of a court process, and so we have no legal power to investigate it.

The complaint

1. Mx C complained the Council wrongly started court action against them for anti-social behaviour. They said it only did so because of their neighbour’s false allegations. They say the Council ignored their complaints about their neighbour’s actions.
2. Mx C says the matter caused them distress, inconvenience, expense and risk to their reputation.
3. Mx C wants the Council to apologise, hold its officers to account, and pay them money. They want the Council to investigate their neighbour’s anti-social behaviour towards them.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. We cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended)
5. We have the power to start or end an investigation into a complaint about actions the law allows us to investigate. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we think the issues could reasonably be, or have been mentioned as part of the legal proceedings regarding a closely related matter. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

8. Mx C’s complaint is partly about the Council’s decision to take court action against them because of their neighbour’s allegations. The law says we cannot investigate councils’ decisions to start court action. We also cannot investigate what happened during the court process.
9. Mx C’s complaint is also about the Council not taking action when they explained they were the victim. They told the Council their neighbour was the person whose behaviour was anti-social. Mx C told the courts about their neighbour’s behaviour. This means we also cannot investigate this part of Mx C’s complaint.
10. When the courts are involved in a matter, we have no legal power to investigate the same thing. This applies even when the court application is withdrawn, which is what happened in this case. This was because no more alleged anti-social behaviour happened. We cannot investigate Mx C’s complaint.
11. However, Mx C can report any more anti-social behaviour to the Council, and if they are not happy with its actions then they can complain again.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mx C’s complaint because it is about matters that were raised as part of a court process. The law prevents us from investigating this.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman