Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that the Council incorrectly sent Mr X a summons for council tax. This is because the complaint was made late to us and there is no significant injustice that would warrant investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council wrongly sent him a summons for council tax. Mr X seeks compensation as he says he had to take two days off work to deal with the matter.

Back to top

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. 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)
4. The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide:

• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

7. The Council sent the summons to Mr X in June 2021. Mr X did not make a complaint to the Council about this until July 2022. Mr X complained to us in early October 2022.
8. Mr X’s complaint is made late to us as he has not complained to us with a year of him knowing about the problem. Mr X has explained that he had periods during which he was on military service, with no access to internet or phone communications.
9. I therefore exercised discretion to consider his complaint, but I do not view it as one that we should investigate. This is because the Council quickly withdrew all recovery action when it received the complaint and apologised for any errors. Although Mr X was inconvenienced, there is no lasting or significant injustice that would warrant investigation.
10. Additionally, we cannot achieve the outcome that Mr X seeks, of compensation: this is not part of our role, and we would not regard a financial remedy as appropriate.

Back to top

Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is made late to us and there is no significant injustice that would warrant investigation.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman