London Borough of Haringey (25 000 923)

Category : Benefits and tax > Council tax

Decision : Upheld

Decision date : 17 Jun 2025

The Ombudsman's final decision:

Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about complaint handling because the Council has provided a satisfactory response.

The complaint

  1. The complainant, Mr X, complains about the Council’s handling of a council tax complaint. Mr X wants the Council to provide more information about what happened and pay him £250.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

  1. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if we are satisfied with the actions an organisation has taken or proposes to take. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(7), as amended)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

  1. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council. This includes the complaint correspondence. I also considered our Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

  1. Mr X complained to the Council that, as part of its consideration of a council tax complaint, it signposted him to us before he had completed the complaints process. Mr X followed the Council’s advice and contacted us; we asked him to go back to the Council to complete the complaints process.
  2. The Council considered the complaint about the complaint handling. The Council upheld the complaint, apologised, changed the templates which address when someone can complain to us, and provided a financial remedy of £80.
  3. I will not investigate this complaint because the Council has provided a satisfactory response by apologising, changing the template and making a symbolic payment. There is nothing more I would expect it to do. I appreciate Mr X wanted £250 but £80 is sufficient to reflect the inconvenience and his time and trouble. There were some delays by the Council in responding but the Council apologised and an additional remedy is not needed.

Back to top

Final decision

  1. We will not investigate this complaint because the Council has provided a satisfactory remedy.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

Print this page

LGO logogram

Review your privacy settings

Required cookies

These cookies enable the website to function properly. You can only disable these by changing your browser preferences, but this will affect how the website performs.

View required cookies

Analytical cookies

Google Analytics cookies help us improve the performance of the website by understanding how visitors use the site.
We recommend you set these 'ON'.

View analytical cookies

In using Google Analytics, we do not collect or store personal information that could identify you (for example your name or address). We do not allow Google to use or share our analytics data. Google has developed a tool to help you opt out of Google Analytics cookies.

Privacy settings