The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to respond to complaints Mr X has made. This is because we are unlikely to find evidence of fault by the Council sufficient to warrant an investigation.
The complaint
Mr X complains Council staff have not logged and recorded the complaints he has made correctly. He says it does not have a record of the antisocial behaviour (ASB) complaint he made on 7 June 2024 and have not investigated it.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
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 Mr X made on 7 June 2024.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr X complains the Council did not respond to the ASB complaint he made on 7 June 2024. However, the Council sent a response to him on 23 June 2024. The majority of the response concerned matters relating to Mr X’s social housing but it also addressed the matter of issues of ASB he had raised with the Housing Ombudsman.
By law we cannot investigate complaints about the provision or management of social housing by a council acting as a registered social housing provider as they fall outside our jurisdiction. Instead, the Housing Ombudsman considers such complaints and Mr X has made his complaint to the Housing Ombudsman.
We can consider complaints about ASB. However, in responding to Mr X on 23 June 2024, the Council explained it did not have an open ASB case in connection with him but that if he wanted to report a matter, he could do so through his named contact.
We do not investigate every complaint we receive and here there are insufficient grounds to warrant an investigation. The Council did respond to Mr X’s complaint of 7 June concerning ASB and it has told him he is free to raise any issues with his contact. It is open to Mr X to do so if he wishes to pursue matters.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we are unlikely to find evidence of fault by the Council sufficient to warrant an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman