North Norfolk District Council (24 000 034)
Category : Benefits and tax > Council tax
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 15 May 2024
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about the Council taking recovery action in the courts for unpaid council tax. We cannot investigate complaints about matters which have been subject to court proceedings.
The complaint
- Mr X complained about the Council obtaining liability orders against him in 2023 without his being informed by the Magistrates Court that this had taken place. He says this prevented him from being able to seek a judicial review of the orders due to the expiry of the three months timeframe for doing so.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council’s responses.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X says the Council took action in the magistrates court to obtain two liability orders against him in October and November 2023. He says he was not aware of the orders being obtained until January 2024 and so was unable to seek judicial review against them.
- The Council served summonses on Mr X in October and November for unpaid council tax for the years 2022/23 and 2023/24 with hearing dates for the liability order included. Mr X emailed the Council when he received these summonses and says he wrote to the court on 11 October about the proposed hearing. He told the Council he would consider litigation in the high court if the summonses were not withdrawn.
- There is no evidence that Mr X attended the hearing where the orders were issued and the summonses included information that if he failed to attend the orders would be applied for as if he was present.
- We cannot investigate complaints about matters which have been subject to court proceedings. In the case of council tax recovery this begins with the serving of a summons.
Final decision
- We cannot investigate this complaint about the Council taking recovery action in the courts for unpaid council tax. We cannot investigate complaints about matters which have been subject to court proceedings.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman