Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about council tax because we cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action and the issues have been part of the legal proceedings in the same matter.

The complaint

1. Mr Y complained the Council has wrongly pursued historic liability orders for unpaid council tax and is now wrongly pursuing him through bankruptcy proceedings.
2. Mr Y currently owes £145,000 in council tax across 23 properties in the Council’s areas. He says this is causing him significant distress and worry.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

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. We have the power to start or end an investigation into a complaint about actions the law allows us to investigate. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we think the issues could reasonably be, or have been, mentioned as part of the legal proceedings regarding a closely related matter. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information Mr Y provided and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. There has been a dispute about Mr Y’s liability for council tax across his rental properties since 2007. Mr Y says he felt so harassed by the Council’s issuing of bills, reminders and liability orders that he paid £24,000 to the Council to stop the constant correspondence about the matter.
7. In January 2023, the Council issued a statutory demand. In February Mr Y made an application to have the statutory demand set aside by the court. The matter had a hearing date in September, but this was adjourned due to issues with the late submission of information by Mr Y. This included a witness statement, which Mr Y has submitted to the court and to us, detailing the issues of his complaint.
8. As the subject of the complaint and all the issues within it have been raised with the court, we will not investigate Mr Y’s complaint. Further as Mr Y’s complaint largely relates to the Council’s actions in starting proceedings, the law says we cannot investigate Mr Y’s complaint.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr Y’s complaint because we cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action and the issues have been part of the legal proceedings in the same matter.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman