The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s decision not to take action in response to her reports of noise and vibration from a neighbouring property and its tenants. There is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s decision-making process to warrant us investigating.
The complaint
Ms X lives with her family, next door to a tenanted property. She complains the Council has failed to deal with noise and vibration from the plumbing and heating system and the tenants in the neighbouring property.
Ms X says there is noise and vibration happens all day and night, along with noise from the tenants. She says there is constant disruption to the family’s sleep and use of their property, making them ill. Ms X says some vibrations have caused property breakages. She wants the Council to stop the noise and vibrations from next door.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6)) We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in the decision making, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information from Ms X, and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
We may only go behind a council decision if there has been fault in its decision‑making process and, but for that fault, officers would have made a different decision. We consider the investigation process the council has used to decide what action, if any, it should take regarding the reported problem.
In response to Ms X’s reports, the Council’s officers have considered the information about the noise and vibration she supplied. Officers have visited Ms X’s property several times to seek to witness the issues raised. They have not witnessed noise or vibration at the property which amounted to a statutory nuisance. The Council also installed noise monitoring equipment twice. Officers then assessed the recordings against the notes Ms X’s household made to describe the noise and vibrations they experienced. They did not get any recordings which were statutory nuisances.
The Council investigated Ms X’s reports of the vibrations and noises by using various appropriate means to gather relevant information and evidence. The outcome of its process is they did not identify a statutory nuisance giving them grounds to take enforcement action. There is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s decision-making process here to warrant us investigating. I realise Ms X disagrees with the Council’s decision. But it is not fault for a council to properly make a decision with which someone disagrees.
Final decision
We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant us investigating.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman