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Bristol City Council (202012780)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202012780

Bristol City Council

22 November 2021


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. This complaint is about the landlord’s response to the complainant’s reports of anti-social behaviour (ASB) involving several neighbours and counter-allegations made against the complainant.

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 in accordance with paragraph 25 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme (‘the Scheme’), which states:
    1. The following people can make complaints to the Ombudsman about members:
      1. a person who is or has been in a landlord/tenant relationship with a member landlord. This includes people who have a lease, tenancy, licence to occupy, service agreement or other arrangement to occupy premises owned or managed by a member.

Summary of events

  1. The complainant in this case is a private owner-occupier of a property.
  2. The complaint brought to this Service is with regards to the complainant’s dissatisfaction with the landlord’s handling of her reports of ASB against her neighbour (‘Tenant A’) who is a tenant of the landlord.
  3. As far as the Ombudsman understands, there has been a history of disputes between Tenant A and her neighbours (including the complainant) since 2018. These were initially around parking issues, which has since escalated and resulted in ad-hoc incidents and arguments between all parties with allegations and counter-allegations from all parties. The landlord investigated these reports at the time and took action in the form of warnings, mediation, and multi-agency reviews. However, this did not resolve matters and the landlord eventually sought an injunction against Tenant A. The landlord also dealt with complaints from both Tenant A and the complainant in December 2019.
  4. Whilst the records are not entirely clear, it would appear that a further complaint was logged by the complainant in May 2020. The landlord issued its final complaint response to the complainant on 23 October 2020. It maintained that it had dealt with the allegations from both sides in a reasonable manner and it had been actively working with external agencies, to help and support all residents to live together harmoniously. At the time, the parties were all participating in an external initiative to help reduce conflict and the landlord hoped that this would go some way to resolving the tensions between the neighbours. The Ombudsman understands that Tenant A has since moved out and the ASB investigation was closed by the landlord.
  5. The complainant then referred the matter to this Service in January 2021.

Reasons

  1. Having considered all the facts and available evidence, the Ombudsman has noted that the complainant is not a tenant or leaseholder of the landlord; and there is no evidence of a landlord/tenant relationship in this case.
  2. As quoted above, paragraph 25 of the Scheme sets out who is eligible to bring a complaint to the Ombudsman. One of the key criteria being that there must be a landlord/tenant relationship in force at the time of the events complained about. In this case, there is no evidence of a landlord/tenant relationship between the complainant and the landlord.
  3. Following enquiries with the landlord, it has been established that there is no contractual relationship between the complainant and the landlord, and the complainant’s property is not owned or managed by the landlord in any way.
  4. Whilst the subject matter of the complaint is about the landlord’s handling of ASB allegations against one of its tenants (Tenant A), the complaint is not within the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction to investigate as the person bringing the complaint does not have a landlord/tenant relationship with the landlord.
  5. In light of the complainant not meeting the necessary eligibility criteria, this complaint falls outside the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction in accordance with paragraph 25 quoted above.