London Borough of Newham (23 008 136)
Category : Benefits and tax > Council tax
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 15 Nov 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about Council tax because the matter is out of time and there is no evidence of fault by the Council.
The complaint
- Ms X complains about enforcement action taken by the Council for unpaid Council tax.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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)
- We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has appealed to a tribunal about the same matter. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
- The Valuation Tribunal deals with appeals against decisions on council tax liability and council tax support or reduction.
- We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Ms X complains about the actions of the Council when enforcing a debt against her.
- The Council points out that the debts relate to bankruptcy proceedings in 2008 (and previously in 2007 to the Council’s complaints procedures). They add that several of the bills were appealed to the Valuation Tribunal at that time. The Ombudsman determined a complaint about these matters in 2017 and decided not to investigate the complaint.
- The Ombudsman will not review that decision given the length of time that has elapsed.
- Ms X refers to a Liability Order obtained in June and says that the Council should not have sought the order whilst she was appealing to the Valuation Tribunal. The matter being appealed is out of jurisdiction for the reason given above. The Valuation Tribunal advises those appealing that they should pay the disputed Council tax sum whilst the appeal is in process (as any successful appeal, could result in a refund). The Council’s decision to seek a Liability Order to secure a debt is not therefore fault.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman