Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council (23 009 975)
Category : Benefits and tax > Council tax
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 23 Oct 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council not treating Mr X’s property as uninhabitable. The Valuation Office Agency, not the Council, is responsible for decisions about whether a property’s council tax band should be deleted. The matter Mr X complained about is not an administrative function of the Council.
The complaint
- Mr X complained the Council added an empty homes premium to his council tax despite the property being uninhabitable. He wants the Council to properly record his property as uninhabitable since 2019.
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 a complaint where the body complained about is not responsible for the issue being raised. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(1), 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
- Mr X wrote to the Council to tell it his property was uninhabitable while works were being carried out. The Council applied discounts that it has available, and Mr X does not contest the application of these. He says, however, that when the periods for these discounts elapsed the Council no longer treated his property as uninhabitable and it applied an empty homes premium to his council tax bill.
- The Council explained, via the complaints process, that it is not responsible for the decision about whether the property is uninhabitable. Only the Valuation Office Agency can delete a property’s council tax band due to the property being uninhabitable. The Council, and the Ombudsman, cannot make this decision. It is open to Mr X to apply to the Valuation Office Agency to ask it to change the property’s council tax band. This will then impact the Council’s calculations.
- The matter Mr X complained about is not an administrative function of the Council and we have no power in law to investigate the matter.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the decision on whether his property should be exempt from paying council tax is for the Valuation Office Agency, not the Council.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman