Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the way the Council has dealt with his business rates. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault in the Council saying it did not receive Mr X’s request to send correspondence to a particular address. It is also because Mr X could reasonably ask a court to decide whether the Council correctly followed the law about serving documents on a company.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council sent his business rates bills to the business premises, rather than to the company’s registered address. He says he did not receive the bills. Mr X states this resulted in his business incurring enforcement costs and his staff being alarmed when enforcement agents visited. He would like the Council to apologise for its actions and waive all enforcement fees.

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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 could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)

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

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by Mr X.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Mr X has provided a copy of his letter to the Council of June 2022, confirming his preferred correspondence address. The Council says it did not receive this, so it did not act on it and instead sent correspondence to the premises where the business rates were owed. Those letters were not returned undelivered. There is therefore no clear evidence that the Council should have been aware that its correspondence was not being received. There is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s position that it did not receive Mr X’s letter.
8. Mr X says he was unaware of his business rates bill or any correspondence following this. It is reasonable to think he was aware that he would have to pay business rates. Mr X did not receive a bill. He could reasonably have asked the Council about this. Mr X’s actions contributed to the rates being unpaid and the resulting enforcement action.
9. We cannot consider any court action, so we cannot investigate whether the Council has followed court procedures correctly.
10. Mr X says the Council did not follow the correct law on serving documents on a limited company rather than an individual. The Council disagrees. We cannot look at these differing interpretations of law as this is properly a matter for a court. It would be reasonable for Mr X to ask a court to set aside the liability order if he thinks the process was flawed.
11. Mr X has complained about the way the Council has dealt with his complaint. We do not separately investigate complaint handling and procedures if we are not investigating the subject of the complaint.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. There is insufficient evidence of fault in the Council saying it did not receive Mr X’s request to send correspondence to a particular address. We cannot consider the court action the Council took. The question of whether the Council followed the correct procedure to serve documents on a company is for the courts to decide. We will not investigate the Council’s complaint handling in isolation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman