Summary: Mrs B complains the Council is demanding council tax she does not owe. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint because he does not have the legal power to do so.

The complaint

1. Mrs B complains the Council is demanding council tax she is not liable for. She says this has resulted in her incurring legal fees.

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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 can appeal to a tribunal. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to appeal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
4. The Valuation Tribunal deals with appeals against decisions on council tax liability and council tax support or reduction.
5. We cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered the information Mrs B provided. I shared my draft decision with Mrs B and considered her comments on it.

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What I found

7. Mrs B says the Council is demanding council tax she does not owe because it is for a property she neither owns nor lives in. Mrs B states she has incurred expense using a solicitor to dispute the matter with the Council.
8. This complaint is about whether Mrs B is liable for the council tax the Council is demanding. Mrs B has, or had, the right to appeal to the Valuation Tribunal about that. So the restriction described in paragraph 2 applies.
9. Responding to a draft of this decision, Mrs B says she was not advised to go to the tribunal. Even if the Council and Mrs B’s solicitor did not tell her about the Valuation Tribunal (which I do not know either way), we told Mrs B about that right when we decided her previous complaint in 2018. So Mrs B knew about her appeal right.
10. I note Mrs B has health problems. However, I do not consider that would make it inherently unreasonable to expect Mrs B to appeal, or to have appealed to the tribunal.
11. Mrs B states she cannot afford to pay anyone to act further for her. The tribunal is not necessarily expensive. It is for each appellant to decide whether to pay a representative; this is not a requirement. Moreover, the tribunal has the expertise to decide such matters and the power to change the Council’s decisions as it considers necessary. So I do not consider this point means it is, or was, unreasonable to expect Mrs B to appeal to the tribunal.
12. Overall, therefore, I consider it reasonable to expect Mrs B to appeal to the tribunal if the Council is still demanding this council tax, or to have appealed at the time the Council was saying she was liable.
13. I note Mrs B’s dissatisfaction with the fee her solicitor charged for writing to the Council. That is not a matter for the Council or the Ombudsman.
14. Mrs B also states that, when the Council was taking court action about the council tax, the court hearing date changed several times then was cancelled. She reports this caused her financial difficulty as she spent money on taxis to get to court. This point is about the conduct of court proceedings after the issuing of the summons so the Ombudsman cannot investigate it, as paragraph 5 explained.
15. Mrs B’s current complaint also mentions the Council making her bankrupt for council tax debt in the past. From the context, Mrs B appears to mention that as background information rather than as part of her current complaint. However, for the avoidance of doubt, I cannot consider the bankruptcy matter now because our decision on Mrs B’s previous complaint dealt with it in March 2018.

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Final decision

16. The Ombudsman cannot investigate this complaint. This is because of Mrs B’s appeal right.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman