London Borough of Hillingdon (21 012 216)
Category : Benefits and tax > Council tax
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 11 Jan 2022
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: Mr X disputes his liability for council tax and his recorded payments since 2012. We will not investigate this complaint because he can appeal to a Valuation Tribunal and part of the complaint is out of time.
The complaint
- Mr X disputes his liability for council tax and his recorded payments since 2012.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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)
- We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
- I considered the complainant’s comments on my draft decision
My assessment
- Mr X says that the Council has incorrectly calculated his payments and liability for council tax since 2012.
- Any dispute about liability for council tax can be appealed to a Valuation Tribunal. The tribunal is an expert body and their decisions are binding on the Council. I see no reason why an appeal could not be made in this case.
- The Council has provided a breakdown of all payments and bills from 2012 onwards to Mr X. Mr X can now provide proof to the Council of any individual payments not accounted for.
- Any dispute about payments made beyond 12 months before his complaint to this office is out of jurisdiction as he could reasonably have made such complaints at that time.
Final decision
- I do not intend to investigate this complaint because he could appeal to a Valuation Tribunal and part of the complaint is out of time.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman