Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council (20 007 702)
Category : Benefits and tax > Council tax
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 04 Jan 2021
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate how the Council names the complainants on their council tax bills. We are unlikely to find they have been caused injustice that justifies our involvement.
The complaint
- The complainants, who I refer to here as Mr B and Miss C, have complained about how they are shown on their council tax bills. They are also unhappy with how the Council has dealt with their concerns about this.
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 an investigation if, for example, we believe:
- it is unlikely we would find fault; or
- the fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained; or
- any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
- It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, where are not dealing with the substantive issue.
How I considered this complaint
- I have considered what Mr B and Miss C said in their complaint and background information provided by the Council. Mr B and Miss C commented on a draft before I made this decision.
What I found
- In essence, Mr B and Miss C are jointly liable for council tax at their home but are unhappy with how they are named on their bills. There is no other dispute about their liability or how much council tax they have to pay.
Final decision
- I have decided we will not investigate this complaint. This is because we are unlikely to find fault by the Council has caused Mr B and Miss C injustice that warrants our involvement, Given this, we will not investigate how the Council has dealt with their concerns.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman