Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about council tax liability and council tax arrears recovery. With the liability, we will not investigate the complaint as it is late and I see no good reasons to exercise our discretion and investigate. Miss X could also reasonably have used her right to appeal to a tribunal when she had that right. With the arrears recovery, we cannot investigate matters about the start of court action or what happened in court.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained the Council:
1. Failed to send her council tax bills for several years after she moved into her property. When she did receive her council tax bill, Miss X says the Council had overcharged her as it had not applied her benefits to her account.
2. Failed to respond to her communications about this matter.
3. Issued a court summons to her about a liability order, despite her having raised the issues with the Council.
4. Wrote to Miss X to demand payment and wrongly said there was a liability order in place.
5. Applied to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to take direct payments from Miss X’s Universal Credit, despite the court having withdrawn the liability order.
2. Miss X also complained that she:
1. Had to make many requests to the Council to pay her a ‘Covid relief’ payment, but the Council only resolved this after starting court action.
2. Applied for a severely mentally impaired (SMI) council tax discount on two occasions and the Council did not tell her that it applied the discount to her account.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. 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).
5. 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).
6. The Valuation Tribunal deals with appeals against decisions on council tax liability and council tax support or reduction.
7. 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).
8. 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:

• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B)).

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How I considered this complaint

9. I considered information provided by Miss X and the Council.
10. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

11. I will not investigate point a) of Miss X’s complaint, as it was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. The Council created Miss X’s council tax account in December 2021 and Miss X complained to us in March 2025. I see no good reason to accept this late complaint now.
12. Also, if Miss X had considered the bill to be wrong, she had the right to appeal to the Valuation Tribunal at the time. Miss X has referred to appealing to the ‘Valuation Office Agency’ in May 2022, which on balance, is likely to refer to the Valuation Tribunal. Therefore, it seems Miss X either used, or reasonably could have used, her appeal right if she believed the calculation on her council tax bill was wrong.
13. I will not investigate point b) as this is also late. This relates to an alleged lack of communication prior to Miss X’s appeal in May 2022. I see no good reason to use discretion to investigate this matter now. The Council has accepted some fault in this matter and there is no further worthwhile outcome we could achieve by investigating the matter.
14. I cannot investigate points c) and d) of the complaint, as the restriction in paragraph 4 prevents us from investigating events from the Council issuing the summons until the court hearing.
15. I will not investigate point e) of the complaint. The Council accepts it should not have asked for and taken the deduction from Miss X’s Universal Credit. It has refunded the payment, which was £19.67, to Miss X. Therefore, there is no further worthwhile outcome we could achieve by investigating the matter.
16. I will not investigate point f) of the complaint. The Council has now made the payment. Therefore, there is no further worthwhile outcome we could achieve by investigating the matter.
17. I will not investigate point g) of the complaint. Although the Council may not have properly explained this to Miss X, it has given her the discount. Therefore, there is no further worthwhile outcome we could achieve by investigating the matter.

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Final decision

18. We will not investigate this complaint about council tax liability and council tax arrears recovery. With the liability, the complaint is late and Miss X either did or reasonably could have used her right to appeal to a tribunal when she had that right. With the arrears recovery, we cannot investigate matters about the start of court action or what happened at court.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman