Blackburn with Darwen Council (23 000 445)
Category : Benefits and tax > Council tax
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 08 May 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s enforcement of a Council tax debt because there is no evidence of fault by the Council causing significant injustice to Mr X.
The complaint
- Mr X says that the Council is seeking payment of Council tax from him greater than that stated in a recent Liability Order.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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:
- there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
- any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
- any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
- we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
- further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X says that a Liability Order granted by the courts in August 2022 was for 1,082 pounds but the Council is seeking a payment of 1,341 pounds plus 75 pounds costs. He says that this a fraud.
- The Council says that the summons was for the amount they stated and they sought additional information for a further amount after the Liability Order was issued.
- Mr X does not dispute the total amount of debt. Whether or not the total amount was stated in the Liability Order was correct, the Council still has the legal capacity to enforce the outstanding debt in the Liability Order (via bailiffs etc). Therefore the dispute about the amount stated in the Liability Order does not cause any significant injustice as the Council is entitled to enforce the debt in any event.
- Any allegation of fraud is a matter for the Police and not the Ombudsman.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman