Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council adding court costs to Mr X’s council tax bill. The law prevents us investigating complaints about a decision to commence court proceedings.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained about the Council incorrectly charging him and wrongly adding court summons costs to his council tax bill, without making clear it had done so. He complains the Council then refused to consider a complaint. He says this has caused stress, and he has gone to time and trouble trying to resolve the matter. He says he has paid unnecessary costs, and he wants the Council to remove the court costs from his council tax bill.

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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 a complaint about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended)
4. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone can appeal to a tribunal about the same matter. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to appeal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
5. 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 we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

8. Mr X’s complaint relates to a period during which a property he owns was vacant between tenants. He says the Council charged him incorrectly, and it wrongly took the matter to court which resulted in additional charges.
9. We do not usually consider complaints about the amount of council tax a person is asked to pay. This is because the Valuation Tribunal considers appeals about council tax liability. It would have been reasonable for Mr X to use his right to appeal to resolve any incorrect calculations of his council tax and there is not a good reason in this case for us to consider that part of his complaint instead.
10. The law prevents us investigating complaints about councils’ decisions to begin court proceedings. Therefore, we could not say the Council was wrong to take the matter to court, or that the court costs were incorrectly added to Mr X’s council tax bill. We could not achieve the outcome Mr X seeks.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the law prevents us from considering complaints about a decision to commence court proceedings.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman