Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of Ms X’s Council Tax accounts. This is because past events fall outside our jurisdiction due to the passage of time and because Ms X would have had appeal rights to the Valuation Tribunal to challenge her Council Tax liability.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains about the Council’s mishandling of her two Council Tax accounts over the past 15-20 years. She says there has been a litany of failures and that its response has been to deny and dismiss and to undertake relentless enforcement of the debt it says she owes.

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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. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone has a right of appeal, reference or review to a tribunal about the same matter. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to use this right. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
5. The Valuation Tribunal deals with appeals against decisions on council tax liability and council tax support or reduction.

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

8. The restrictions highlighted at paragraphs 3 and 4 apply to Ms X’s complaint. We dealt with a complaint from Ms X in 2015 and if there were new matters after this date about which she wanted to complain, we would reasonably have expected her to have come back to us sooner and so these past events fall outside our jurisdiction due to the passage of time and will not be investigated now.
9. Moreover, if Ms X disputed her liability for the two properties, she could have appealed to the Valuation Tribunal. As she had this alternative remedy available which we would reasonably have expected her to have used, again, these matters fall outside our jurisdiction.
10. More recently, the Council has addressed Ms X’s queries concerning her Council Tax debt and the payments owing. It has invited her to send details of any additional payments she has made which are not showing on her accounts so the Council can help track them and this is still open to her.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because past events fall outside our jurisdiction due to the passage of time and because Ms X would have had appeal rights to the Valuation Tribunal to challenge her Council Tax liability.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman