Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s management of her council tax account dating back to 2016. This is because the complaint is late and there are no good reasons to investigate now.

The complaint

1. Ms X complained about how the Council has managed her council tax account since 2016. She says it unfairly instructed enforcement agents to collect outstanding council tax arrears who have harassed her family for several years. She wants the Council to allow her to pay the original debt and compensate her for distress caused.

Back to top

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 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)
4. We investigate 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 continue an investigation if we decide further investigation would not lead to a different outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

7. Ms X complains about the Council’s management of her council tax account since 2016. She said the Council’s enforcement agents have harassed her and her family for seven years she has been trying to resolve the issue with the Council for at least the last three years.
8. We cannot investigate this complaint as the complaint is late. There is no good reason why Ms X could not have complained to us sooner and so we cannot investigate.
9. In any case, in its recent complaint response to Ms X, the Council said it had withdrawn the account from its enforcement agents. It agreed to deduct the enforcement agent fees to give her the opportunity to pay the original amount plus the court summons costs. It also told her it would agree a repayment plan, if she wanted this. Even if the complaint was not late, we could not achieve more than this and so would not investigate.
10. Ms X also complains about how her complaint was handled. We will not consider this as it is not a good use of resources to investigate complaints about complaints procedures, where we cannot investigate the substantive issue.

Back to top

Final decision

11. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because the complaint is late and there are no good reasons to investigate now.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman