Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about her council tax account. This is because part of the complaint is late, there is insufficient outstanding injustice and further investigation by us could achieve nothing more.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council wrongly wrote off council tax overpayments and then started court action against her for non-payment of council tax. She said the Council owes her money and she has lost earnings trying to resolve the matter. She wants the Council to refund her for the overpayments and compensate her for lost earnings.

Back to top

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 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:
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

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

Back to top

My assessment

6. Part of the complaint is late. Ms X complains about issues with her council tax going back to 2002, but I can see no good reason why Ms X could not have complained to us earlier about any issues arising before 2022. Because of this, we cannot investigate complaints about her council tax billing prior to 2022.
7. I have reviewed information provided by Ms X and the Council related to her council tax account since 2022.
8. Ms X says the Council issued her with a liability order and court summons in 2022, but then withdrew it before the hearing took place. I appreciate this will likely have caused Ms X some distress and inconvenience, but as the Council withdrew the summons at the time, I do not consider there is sufficient outstanding injustice to justify our involvement. We do not consider compensation claims for loss of earnings, these are best considered by a court.
9. In its complaint response to Ms X in March 2023, the Council said her council tax account was up to date and had a small credit, which it would deduct from the next year’s council tax bill. It provided her with details of charges and payments received since she became liable for council tax at her current address. It set out her bill for the current financial year and details of her weekly instalment plan.
10. I have seen no evidence the Council has written off any overpayments since 2022. As the Council has accepted she is up to date with her account and advised her of her payment plan for the current financial year, further investigation by us could achieve nothing more.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman