Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of Mr X’s council tax liability and the actions of its third-party enforcement agency. This is because some parts of the complaint are late and there are no good reasons to consider it now. Of the parts remaining, there is not enough evidence of fault, in the Council’s actions, to justify investigating.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained that the Council had wrongly held him liable for council tax, (CT) as he believes he does not have a valid contract with the Council. He also disputed the Council’s decision to refer the matter to an enforcement agency and said the additional charges incurred as a result were unjustified. Mr X also complained about the complaint handling. Mr X said this caused financial injustice.

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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 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 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 there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

7. Mr X raised matters spanning several years. I will not investigate any complaints about the Council’s actions from 2020 to 2023. This is because those are late complaints, and I have not seen any evidence of good reasons why Mr X did not come to us when he had the Council’s decisions on those matters, earlier.
8. I have considered Mr X’s complaint insofar as it relates to the Council’s CT decisions in 2024 to 2025. Mr X said the Council incorrectly held him liable for CT and failed to properly consider his objections to the liability, including his concerns about the case being passed to an enforcement agency and the additional charges applied.
9. The Council explained that Mr X’s requests, including his assertion that he must have a contract with the Council and his request to meet the Council’s Chief Executive, have no basis in legislation and do not affect his liability. It also explained that for the outstanding debt covering the year 2024 – 2025, it had obtained a liability order and lawfully passed the debt to a third‑party enforcement agency, who was then entitled to apply additional statutory fees as part of its enforcement action. It set out how those fees could be calculated.
10. The Council’s published information confirms that council tax liability is determined by legislation rather than by contractual agreement, and that once a case is passed to enforcement, the enforcement agent may add statutory fees in accordance with the relevant regulations.
11. Therefore, it is unlikely we would find evidence of fault in how the Council determined Mr X’s liability or progressed the debt to enforcement, given it acted in accordance with the legislation and its established procedures.
12. In any case, if Mr X believed he was not liable for council tax on a property and disputed it for reasons, other than those he has claimed in the correspondence I have seen, he would ordinarily have a right of appeal to the Valuation Tribunal. In such cases, it would be reasonable for persons disputing liability, to use the legal remedy, that parliament created.
13. Finally, Mr X said if the Council had earlier considered his correspondence as a complaint, then the debt would not have been allowed to accrue. We will not look at the Council’s complaint handling as it is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we decide not to deal with the substantive issue.

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Final decision

14. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because some of it is a late complaint and there are no good reasons to exercise discretion to consider it now. Additionally, there is not enough of evidence of fault to justify investigating.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman