Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a council tax support decision as Mr X can appeal this to the Valuation Tribunal. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that the Council did not send him forms as this complaint is made late. We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about what was said about him in court at a council tax hearing as this is not within our legal remit.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains that the Council:
1. did not send forms he requested from it in late 2023 to apply for council tax support,
2. lied about him at a council tax hearing in court, and
3. refused to backdate council tax support for more than three months prior to the date he applied
2. Mr X says he has been caused stress and anxiety by this.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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)
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)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

8. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that the Council did not send council tax support application forms to him after he requested them in 2023. As Mr X did not complain to us until May 2025, his complaint is late as it was not made to us within a year of him knowing about the problem. As per paragraph three, the law says we should not investigate late complaints unless there are good reasons. Mr X has not explained why he did not complain to us sooner and I have not seen good reason within the information in his complaint for us to investigate this late complaint now.
9. As per paragraph four, we cannot investigate what happens in court and we cannot therefore investigate Mr X’s complaint that the Council lied about him in court. Mr X would need to complain about this through the courts service.
10. The Council has explained to Mr X that he can appeal against its decision on his entitlement to council tax support to the Valuation Tribunal (VT). The VT is the independent body which decides disputes about council tax support entitlement. We are not empowered to make such determinations. It is reasonable therefore to expect Mr X to make such an appeal, and we will not investigate, as per paragraph five.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we cannot investigate what took place in court. We will not investigate the Council’s council tax support decision as it is reasonable to expect Mr X to appeal to the VT about this. Mr X’s complaint that the Council did not send him forms he had requested is made late and there are not good reasons for us to investigate now.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman