Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to remove a single person council tax discount as the complainant had the right to appeal the decision to the Valuation Tribunal.

The complaint

1. Complainant X complains the Council removed their single person council tax discount due to an allegation that other people lived at the property. X complains the Council delayed in carrying out a visit to his property and failed to provide the specific legal rationale for its decision. X wants the Council to acknowledge it did not provide him with a good service.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. 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 any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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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. Information the Council has sent to me suggests it advised X of their appeal right against its decision to remove the discount. It is reasonable to expect X to have appealed and as per paragraph two, we will not therefore investigate.
7. I recognise X remains dissatisfied with what took place but as the matter is now resolved, notwithstanding the barrier to our involvement explained in the preceding paragraph, from our perspective, there is insufficient remaining injustice caused to X to justify our further involvement.
8. For these reasons, we will not investigate.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate X’s complaint because X had the right to appeal the Council’s decision to an independent tribunal and there is insufficient remaining injustice caused to them to warrant our further involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman