Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to take action against its tenant for parking a campervan on their driveway which is affecting Mrs X’s home. We cannot investigate complaints about tenancy management by social housing landlords.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained about the Council’s failure to take action against a neighbouring council tenant who has been parking a campervan on their driveway where it restricts light into her home. She also says the campervan is sometimes parked near a discretionary H-bar marking on the highway which is to preserve access to her driveway. She wants the Council to take action against its tenant for this and various tenancy breaches which have affected her home.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council’s responses.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mrs x says her neighbour who is a Council tenant parks a large campervan on their driveway which restricts light and the view form her home. She says this also makes accessing her driveway difficult because of the restricted view of the street and the proximity to a H-bar line on the road. She has also complained about an electric cable attached to the rear of her home by the tenant and works in their garden which she believes should have permission from the Council.
7. Since 2023 we have had no jurisdiction to investigate complaints about the management of social housing by council landlords. This restriction applies to Mrs X’s complaints about the campervan on the Council’s property and any of the works carried out by the tenant.
8. The Council has powers to take parking enforcement action against the tenant if they are breaching any highway restrictions but it has not identified any instances of this so far. The H-bar marking is a discretionary one and is not enforceable in law.

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Final decision

9. We cannot investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to take action against its tenant for parking a campervan on their driveway which is affecting Mrs X’s home. We cannot investigate complaints about tenancy management by social housing landlords

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman