Summary: We cannot investigate whether the amount stated on a Council Tax, Court issued, Liability Order is correct. We are unlikely to find fault in the Council attempting to recover less than the stated amount.

The complaint

1. Mr X says the Council failed to reply to his complaint about Council Tax recovery.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. We have the power to start or end an investigation into a complaint about actions the law allows us to investigate. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we think the issues could reasonably be, or have been mentioned as part of the legal proceedings regarding a closely related matter. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended, section 34(B))
4. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by Mr X which included the Council’s replies to him.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

Background events

7. The Council obtained Council Tax Liability Orders from the Courts in 2025. This gave it power to take action to recover the debt up to the amount set out in the order. Mr X says following the Liability Order the Council accepted he owed a lower amount. He says the Council should have applied to the Courts to amend the Liability Order before it could enforce the debt. He complained to the Council.
8. The Council in reply to Mr X referred Mr X to the relevant legislation and told him to apply for the Liability Order to be set aside if he did not agree with it. It then refused to escalate his complaint.
9. Mr X says the Council’s response was rude. He says it should have escalated his complaint.

Analysis

10. We cannot investigate the commencement or conduct of court proceedings. This means we cannot investigate if the Council applied to Court for the right amount on the Liability Order, nor can we investigate if the Liability Order states the right amount.
11. It is reasonable to expect Mr X to have challenged the Liability Order amount in Court.
12. We are unlikely to find fault in the Council pursuing debt recovery for an amount less than in the Liability Order.
13. We will not investigate how the Council replied to Mr X’s complaint. 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.

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Final decision

14. We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about the amount the Council stated on a Liability Order. We are unlikely to find fault in the Council trying to recover less than the amount stated in the Liability Order.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman