London Borough of Barking & Dagenham (24 021 818)
Category : Benefits and tax > Council tax
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 18 May 2025
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaints about the Council’s refusals to: discount her council tax, provide a Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG), and reimburse fines paid. This is because the first complaint has already been responded to by the Ombudsman and the remaining complaints are late.
The complaint
- Ms X, complains about three issues:
- the Council’s rejection of zero rate exemption for council tax,
- fly tipping fines and,
- the Council not helping with repairs or awarding a Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG).
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- It is our decision whether to start, and when to end an investigation into something the law allows us to investigate. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended)
- 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)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Ms X and the Council. I also considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- We considered Ms X’s council tax complaint in 2021 and we cannot consider the same issues again. I will not investigate this part of the complaint.
- I will not start an investigation about the other matters because these are late complaints. Ms X has been aware of the issues surrounding the assessment for a DFG since 2022. And, the fly-tipping fines were issued more than six years ago but she did not complain to us until January 2025. I have not seen any good reason to exercise discretion to investigate, especially as Ms X has made other complaints to us since 2016.
- The Council has agreed to contact Ms X to reconsider her application for a DFG to establish whether her circumstances have changed.
- If Ms X thinks there is fault with current council tax issues, she can raise a new complaint to the Council.
Final decision
- We will not investigate this complaint. This is because one of the issues Ms X complains of has previously been considered and because the remaining issues are late.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman