London Borough of Barnet (25 008 560)
Category : Benefits and tax > Council tax
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 08 Dec 2025
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about council tax because the complaint is late. It is not good use of public resources to investigate delays in complaint responses if we are not investigating the main issue.
The complaint
- Mr X complains the Council failed to follow its complaints policy in responding to his complaint about outstanding council tax arrears for 2016/17. He says this has caused him frustration and time to resolve the matter.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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).
- It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council. I also considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X complained the Council sent him a council tax bill for arrears from 2016/17. He said he had questioned the arrears in 2022. However, the Council did not reply. Mr X complained again in April 2025.
- The Council replied in May, and then at stage two in July 2025. It said it had revised Mr X’s council tax support. The arrears from 2016 were cleared and the Council owed Mr X a refund.
- Mr X said he was satisfied with the outcome but not the delay in responding.
- Mr X’s complaint is late because he was aware of the issue in 2022. He complained to the Ombudsman in July 2025. It is more than 12 months since he became aware of the matter and there is no good reason for Mr X’s delay in coming to the Ombudsman.
- We will not investigate the delays in responding to Mr X’s complaints for the reason set out in paragraph 3.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is late and there are no good reasons for this. We will not investigate the complaint handling matters Mr X raised as we are not investigating the substantive issue.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman