Summary: We will not investigate this late complaint about Mr X’s council tax liability payments. It relates to payments he made to enforcement agents up to 2019, and there is not a good reason Mr X did not complain to us sooner.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained about how the Council applied his council tax payments to his council tax account when he paid enforcement agents. He wants the Council to refund overpayments.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint unless we are satisfied the council knows about the complaint and has had an opportunity to investigate and reply. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to notify the council of the complaint and give it an opportunity to investigate and reply (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(5))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mr X has been complaining to the Council for more than ten years, as he says many payments he has made towards his council tax bills have not been accounted for. Mr X contacted us in 2021 asking us to consider the issue. We explained in April 2021 and again in September 2021 that Mr X first needed to complain to the Council and then contact us if he remained unsatisfied after its final response, or if it had not provided him a response after 12 weeks.
7. Mr X complained to the Council in November 2021 and the Council responded to him at stage one of its complaints process in December 2021. Mr X then contacted us again in September 2022. He did not ask the Council to escalate his complaint to stage two, and the Council now considers it too late to do so.
8. The payments considered in the Council’s complaint response related to five liability orders issued between 2014 and 2017, and the payments were made up to 2019. We usually expect people to bring complaints to us within 12 months of events. There are several points at which Mr X could have expedited the complaint process and there is not a good reason for the delay in him bringing his complaint to us. We will not now consider this complaint about historic payments.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s late complaint because there is not a good reason he did not complaint to the Council and then the Ombudsman sooner.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman