Huntingdonshire District Council (20 007 686)
Category : Benefits and tax > Council tax
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 07 Dec 2020
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: Ms X complains about the Council’s council tax policy to remove a discount in relation to empty properties. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint because there is no evidence of fault by the Council causing significant injustice to Ms X.
The complaint
- Ms X complains about the Council’s council tax policy to remove the discount in relation to empty properties.
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 believe:
- it is unlikely we would find fault, or
- the fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
- the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I have considered the comments of the complainant and the Council and the complainant has commented on the draft decision.
What I found
- Ms X owns a public house which became empty in 2020. She believed that she would be entitled to a discount on council tax whilst the property was empty. However, the Council told her that the policy had changed and that there was no longer any discount for empty properties.
- The Council says that it advertised the changes in the local paper as was required by law.
- I am not satisfied that there was evidence of fault by the Council. Ms X did not suffer a significant injustice from any failure to tell her as the proper charge was administered in any event.
- Ms X also complains about use of the local tip and information provided by the County Council about its use, but that is not a matter for the District Council (as it is administered by the County Council)
Final decision
- I do not intend to investigate this complaint because there is no evidence of fault by the Council causing her significant injustice.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman