London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham (202321886)

Background

1. The resident lives in a flat on the ground floor of a block. In August 2023 she told the landlord that her neighbour was playing loud music through the day and night. The landlord’s Environmental Protection Service (acting on behalf of the local authority) investigated and gave the resident advice on reporting incidents. The resident was unhappy with its response and complained.

What the complaint is about

2. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of reports of noise nuisance.

Jurisdictional decision

3. We found the landlord’s handling of reports of noise nuisance is outside of our jurisdiction.

Reasons why

4. We are not free to investigate all complaints referred to us. What we can and cannot consider is set out in the Housing Ombudsman Scheme and is called our jurisdiction.
5. Under our scheme, we can only investigate complaints about councils where they are acting as the landlord under a licence, lease, or a social housing tenancy. In this case, the council was not acting in this capacity because its Environmental Protection Service does not form part of its housing management function. As such, we have no power to investigate the complaint about its handling of reports of noise nuisance. The resident may instead be able to complain to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.

Recommendations

Our recommendations are not binding, and a landlord may decide not to follow them.