Summary: We will not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint about the Council’s recovery of council tax arrears since 2020. This complaint was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. There is no evidence to suggest that Miss X could not have complained to us sooner. We have no jurisdiction to investigate complaints about matters which have been subject to court proceedings.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained about the Council using enforcement agents to recover council tax arrears form 2020. She says she was not fully informed about the debts because the notices were posted to an address she no longer lives at. She also says there is no evidence of the Council obtaining the liability orders which its agents are enforcing. She also questioned the Council’s supply of her personal data to enforcement agents and possible breaches of the GDPR regulations. On data protection.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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 provider has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
3. 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)
4. The Information Commissioner's Office considers complaints about freedom of information. Its decision notices may be appealed to the First Tier Tribunal (Information Rights). So, where we receive complaints about freedom of information, we normally consider it reasonable to expect the person to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner.

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

7. Miss X says the Council employed enforcement agents to collect unpaid council tax from 2020 onwards. She says she was not fully informed about reminders, summonses and liability orders for four financial years and that the Council had not shown her copies of the orders obtained from the magistrates court. She also questioned the Council’s authority to provide her personal data to its agents to collect debts on its behalf.
8. The Council says that it posted summonses and notices to Miss X from 2020 and that these were not returned as undelivered. The provisions of the Interpretation Act 1978 state that any notice posted by a council is deemed served, even if the recipient claims they did not receive it. The Council also says that the enforcement agents have made previous payment arrangements with Miss X which have been breached so she must have been aware of the action taken.
9. The Council says it obtained four liability orders against Miss X and that she would need to contact the magistrates court for evidence of the listings from previous years. A liability order is not an individual order but authority granted by the court to seek recovery against a list of debtors.
10. We will not investigate this complaint about matters which took place more than 12 months before we received a complaint about them. There is no evidence to suggest that Miss X could not have complained to us sooner. The time for receiving complaints is from when someone became aware of the matter they wished to complain about, not when they complained to the Council or it issued its final response. We would expect someone to complain to us within a year, even if they were dissatisfied with the time the complaints procedure was taking.
11. We have some discretion to consider older complaints but this would not apply to Miss X’s case. This is because even had she complained earlier, we have no discretion to consider matters which have been subject to court proceedings. In the case of council tax arrears, the proceedings begin with service of a summons.
12. Miss X complained about the inappropriate disclosure of her data to enforcement agents by the Council. The office of the Information Commissioner is a body better placed to investigate such complaints.

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Final decision

13. We will not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint about the Council’s recovery of council tax arrears since 2020. This complaint was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. There is no evidence to suggest that Miss X could not have complained to us sooner. We have no jurisdiction to investigate complaints about matters which have been subject to court proceedings.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman