Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council (23 013 516)
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about Council tax payments as the complaint is out of time and the Council has remedied the matter.
The complaint
- Mr X complains that the Council mismanaged his Council tax payments.
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 investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we are satisfied with the actions an organisation has taken or proposes to take. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(7), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X says that his payments of Council tax for year 2021/22 were not credited which resulted in the issue of a Liability Order.
- The Council accepts that some payments made in that year had been allocated to arrears from the previous year. The payments were re-transferred to the current year but a shortfall still existed so further payment was requested from Mr X. This payment was made but not before a Liability Order was issued.
- The Council waived the Liability Order charge so no significant injustice was caused by this. Nevertheless, the complaint could have been made to this office within 12 months of the date of the Liability Order (September 2021) and there were arrears in 2020 and 2021 which could have resulted in a Liability Order in any event.
- The Ombudsman would not therefore investigate this complaint because the complaint is out of time and been remedied.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman