Broxbourne Borough Council (23 006 200)
Category : Benefits and tax > Council tax
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 06 Sep 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of Mr X’s Council Tax account and issues dating back to 2017. This is because the complaint is a late complaint and so falls outside our jurisdiction.
The complaint
- The complainant, who I call Mr X, complains the Council has not responded to his enquiries about his Council Tax liability. He says it ignored his request for help in 2017 and did not cancel two court summonses with which he had been issued.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- 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)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant, including the Council’s response to his recent complaint about this matter.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- The restriction highlighted at paragraph 3 applies to Mr X’s complaint. The issues he complains about go back to 2017 and he pursued matters with the Council in 2018 and 2019. As we would reasonably have expected him to have complained to us sooner, the complaint is a late complaint and so falls outside our jurisdiction.
- Moreover, the Council has responded to Mr X’s most recent complaint about this matter. It reviewed his account and explained the balance still outstanding which relates to Council Tax for the 2017/2018 financial year. It did acknowledge that it had failed to respond to emails he had sent in April 2020 and September 2022 but his position had not changed with regards to liability for the earlier tax year.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the complaint is a late complaint and so falls outside our jurisdiction.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman