Summary: Ms X complains about the Council’s actions in placing land charges on properties she owns. We will not investigate the complaint because these matters relate to notices served on her as a private landlord against which she had appeal rights to the Magistrates Court.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to as Ms X, complains about land charges the Council has placed on properties she owns and has rented out. She says this is preventing the sale of one of her properties. The charges relate to work the Council did in default under notices it served on her but Ms X says the notices were invalid.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
4. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by Ms X and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
7. I gave Ms X the opportunity to comment on my draft decision.

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My assessment

8. Ms X is a private landlord who owns a number of properties which she rents out to tenants. Over the years she has been issued with notices by the Council which required her to carry out specified works to the properties. On occasion, the Council carried out work in default, charged Ms X and placed land charges on the properties concerned. Ms X complained to us because she wishes to sell one of her properties but the land change placed on it by the Council has prevented its sale.
9. The Council’s response to Ms X’s complaint addressed issues she had raised about different properties going back a number of years. The restriction highlighted at paragraph 4 applies to past events and we will not investigate them now as Ms X could have complained to us sooner.
10. Moreover, the restriction highlighted at paragraph 3 also applies to Ms X’s complaint. She had appeal rights to the Magistrates Court against the notices issued to her by the Council. As we would reasonably have expected her to have used them, her complaint falls outside our jurisdiction and will not be investigated.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because Ms X had appeal rights to the Magistrates Court.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman