Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about council tax liability because he has used his right of appeal to the Valuation Tribunal.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council charged him Council Tax on a dwelling which he says was unsafe and uninhabitable. He also complains the Council did not properly consider the information he provided dating back to 2022 and did not tell him about his right of appeal to the Valuation Tribunal soon enough.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has appealed to a tribunal about the same matter. We also cannot investigate a complaint if in doing so we would overlap with the role of a tribunal to decide something which has been or could have been referred to it to resolve using its own powers. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
5. The Valuation Tribunal deals with appeals against decisions on council tax liability and council tax support or reduction.

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. Mr X says the Council charged him Council Tax on a dwelling which was unsafe and uninhabitable. He appealed against the Council’s decision the Valuation Tribunal on the basis the property should be deleted from the valuation list and he should not therefore be liable for council tax for it. The Tribunal partly upheld Mr X’s appeal but decided the deletion should apply from the date of a council inspection in 2024 rather than the date Mr X says the property became uninhabitable, which was in 2022.
9. Because Mr X has appealed to the Valuation Tribunal we cannot investigate this complaint, which is about the same matter. We cannot therefore say the Council wrongly charged Mr X council tax between 2022 and 2024.
10. Mr X is also unhappy the Council failed to consider the information he provided and did not tell him of his appeal right sooner. But these points did not cause him significant injustice and we will not investigate them further. As part of his appeal to the Valuation Tribunal Mr X asked the Tribunal to delete the property from the valuation list with effect from 2022 but it was not satisfied, based on the evidence available, the property was unhabitable at that time. Any suggestion that the Council’s delay wrongly affected the outcome of Mr X’s appeal is pure speculation and we cannot therefore say the Council must refund the disputed payments.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because he has used his right of appeal to the Valuation Tribunal.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman