Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to act on reports that the complainant’s neighbour is breaching an Abatement Notice. We have not seen enough evidence of fault in the way the Council considered the reports to justify an investigation.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council has failed to act on her reports of her neighbour breaching an Abatement Notice.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. We are not an appeal body. We may only go behind a council’s decision where there has been fault in its decision-making process and but for that fault a different decision would have been made. So we consider the processes councils have followed to make their decisions.
6. The Council served an Abatement Notice on Ms X’s neighbour because it decided that they were causing a statutory nuisance due to a light on their property activating at night.
7. Ms X has contacted the Council many times, saying the light is back on and still causing a nuisance.
8. The Council confirms officers have visited her home but have not witnessed a light which meets the threshold of a statutory light nuisance against which they can take further action. It has also offered Ms X the opportunity to use its out of hours service on Friday and Saturday evenings, so officers can visit and witness the light in person. The Council confirms Ms X has not taken up this offer.
9. There is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s decision‑making processes to warrant us investigating. We understand Ms X disagrees with their decisions on what actions were required in response to the impact of the light on her and her property. But it is not fault for a council to properly make a decision with which someone disagrees.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because we have not seen evidence of fault in the way the Council considered her report that her neighbour is breaching an Abatement Notice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman