London Borough of Harrow (22 017 183)
Category : Benefits and tax > Council tax
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 10 Apr 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about payments of Council tax as there is no evidence of fault by the Council. The matter is also out of time
The complaint
- Mr X says that, when he alerted that he was in arrears of Council tax in June 2021 he made up payments but, despite this the Council continued with enforcement action with resulting costs.
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 consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in the decision making, we cannot question the outcome. (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.
My assessment
- Mr X was in arrears of Council of £784 in March 2021. He says he made a full payment of Council tax for the following year of £1962 and further payments totalling £784 but the Council continued to obtain a Liability Order and instruct bailiffs.
- However, the remaining debt from the 2021/2 year was still extant (as payments had not been made on time and so the right to pay instalments had been lost) and additional costs of £120 had been added to the account from the summons (totalling £904 by July 2021).
- Therefore, at the time of the Liability Order, a debt existed and so the court would be bound to approve a Liability Order request. I do not consider therefore that the Council’s enforcement of the Council tax debt was the result of administrative fault. Further, I see no reasons why a complaint about a Liability Order in July 2021 could not have been made to this office within 12 months and so the matter is out of time.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman