Manchester City Council (19 016 455)
Category : Benefits and tax > Council tax
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 16 Jan 2020
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Miss X’s complaint that the Council will not award a council tax discount on her second home as we cannot achieve the outcome Miss X wants.
The complaint
- The complainant, whom I shall call Miss X, complains the Council will not award a council tax discount on her second home.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
- Council’s decisions on discretionary discounts are made as part of the annual council tax setting and can only be challenged in court by judicial review (Para 49 Schedule 7 Local Government Act 2003).
How I considered this complaint
- I Have considered what Miss X said in her complaint and given her the opportunity to comment on my draft decision.
What I found
- Miss X has a second home and complains the Council will not award a council tax discount on it despite it having discretion to do so.
- The Council has explained that since April 2019, it does not award any discounts for second homes.
Assessment
- The law allows councils the discretion to set the council tax charge on second homes and says that any such decisions can only be challenged by way of judicial review in the courts.
- We will not therefore investigate as we cannot change the Council’s decision or achieve the outcome Miss X wants.
Final decision
- My decision is that the Ombudsman should not investigate this complaint. This is because we cannot change the Council’s decision or achieve the outcome Miss X wants.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman