Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about council tax account administration as there is insufficient remaining injustice in this case to justify our further involvement.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained the Council issued her with a large, backdated council tax bill after she says it waited years to remove the single person discount that was on her account. Miss X complains the Council failed to properly assess the situation and took recovery action by summonsing her to court when it was still investigating her complaint. Miss X says this caused her stress and worry.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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 remaining injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or further investigation would not lead to a different outcome (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
4. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

7. The Council’s stage two complaint response, that was completed after Miss X submitted her complaint to us, explained why it had removed the council tax discount and taken recovery action. It explained that after Miss X’s circumstances had been re-assessed, in terms of her entitlement to council tax reduction, the balance owing was reduced considerably. The Council also removed the recovery action costs that had been added to the account.
8. I recognise Miss X remains unhappy with what took place, but we will not investigate as any remaining injustice caused from alleged Council fault is not sufficient to justify our further involvement. The council tax account has been amended and costs removed. It is unlikely we can add to this by further investigation.
9. If Miss X disputed the final decision on liability, it was open to her to appeal to the Valuation Tribunal (VT), as advised by the Council in its stage two response. The VT is the independent body that decides council tax disputes. We are not another level of appeal and we cannot make the decisions the VT can.
10. For these reasons, we will not investigate.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because there is insufficient remaining evidence of injustice to warrant our further involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman