Camden Council (201904469)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 201904469

Camden Council

31 March 2022


Our approach

What we can and cannot consider is called the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction and is governed by the Housing Ombudsman Scheme. The Ombudsman must determine whether a complaint comes within their jurisdiction. The Ombudsman seeks to resolve disputes wherever possible but cannot investigate complaints that fall outside of this. 

In deciding whether a complaint falls within their jurisdiction, the Ombudsman will carefully consider all the evidence provided by the parties and the circumstances of the case.

The complaint

  1. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of noise disturbance.

Determination (jurisdictional decision)

  1. When a complaint is brought to the Ombudsman, we must consider all the circumstances of the case as there are sometimes reasons why a complaint will not be investigated.
  2. After carefully considering all the evidence, I have determined that the complaint, as set out above, is not within the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.

Summary of events

  1. The resident is a tenant of the landlord. The resident’s complaint concerns the landlord’s handling of their reports of noise disturbance from a neighbouring property.
  2. The landlord issued a final response to the resident’s complaint on 28 February 2020. The landlord detailed how it had significant difficulties in gaining entry to the upstairs property as the leaseholder had refused to provide access. The landlord explained it would consider taking legal action to progress the matter. The landlord recognised the delay and offered the resident £350 compensation.
  3. The resident contacted this service on 14 October 2021. The resident explained that the landlord had only just written to the neighbour to ask them to install flooring and expressed concerns about the delay in progressing the matter.
  4. The resident provided this service with a copy of the landlord’s final response on 17 November 2021.

Reasons

  1. Paragraph 39d of the Scheme states that…

‘The Ombudsman will not investigate complaints which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, were brought to the Ombudsman’s attention normally more than 12 months after they exhausted the member’s complaints procedure’

  1. The landlord issued a final response to the resident’s complaint on 28 February 2020. The landlord’s final response advised the resident that if they remained dissatisfied, that they could refer the matter to this service. The Ombudsman considers 12 months a reasonable amount of time to refer a complaint to this service. The resident did not refer the complaint to this service until 14 October 2021, more than 19 months after the landlord’s final response. This service does not consider this a reasonable length of time in which to refer the complaint, and so the matter is not one this service can consider further.
  2. This service notes that the noise disturbance is an ongoing issue for the resident and that the landlord has registered a new complaint for the resident. If the resident remains dissatisfied after completing the landlord’s internal complaints process, they are then able to refer the matter to this service for investigation.