Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of Mr X’s Council Tax arrears. This is because the complaint is a late complaint and so falls outside our jurisdiction due to the passage of time.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about the Council’s handling of his Council Tax arrears when, following a move to a new property in late 2020, he received a court summons for Council Tax arrears in 2021. He says the Council had his new address and should have contacted him at it sooner and that it delayed unreasonably in responding to his complaint about the matter.

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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)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. The restriction highlighted at paragraph 3 applies to Mr X’s complaint. He received information about the summons for Council Tax arrears in May 2021 and we would reasonably have expected him to have complained to us about the matter sooner.
7. There was delay by the Council in responding to the complaint Mr X made about the matter in 2023. However, we will not investigate complaint handling when we are not investigating the substantive issue. Moreover, because of the delays Mr X experienced in receiving a response to his complaint, the Council wrote off the costs associated with his case and an investigation by the Ombudsman would be unlikely to result in a significantly different outcome.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is a late complaint and so falls outside our jurisdiction due to the passage of time.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman