Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about council tax liability. Mr X has used his right to appeal to the Valuation Tribunal. We cannot investigate actions relating to court proceedings. Mr X can raise complaints about data protection with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council was demanding council tax from him which he said he did not owe. He also says there were procedural failings in how the Council conducted court action, and that the Council has not fulfilled its responsibilities regarding his subject access request (SAR). Mr X also complains about the Council’s complaint handling.

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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 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)
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 courts have said we can decide not to investigate a complaint about any action by an organisation concerning a matter which the law says we cannot investigate. (R (on the application of M) v Commissioner for Local Administration [2006] EHWCC 2847 (Admin))
6. We normally expect someone to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner if they have a complaint about data protection. However, we may decide to investigate if we think there are good reasons. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by Mr X.
8. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

9. The central point is Mr X’s argument that he did not owe all the council tax the Council demanded. Mr X used his right to appeal to the Valuation Tribunal about this. He reports that the Council then accepted he did not owe all the money. The restriction in paragraph 4 applied as soon as Mr X appealed to the Valuation Tribunal, even if the Council then changed its stance to the Tribunal did not need to make a decision. This means we cannot consider whether the Council was wrong to demand the council tax. It also means we will not consider anything closely connected, such as whether the Council should offer Mr X any remedy for its having demanded payment.
10. The Council obtained a liability order, but Mr X says this was after the summons sent to the wrong address. He says this meant he lost the opportunity to dispute the matter in court. We cannot investigate this part of the complaint as the restriction in paragraph 3 covers the issuing of the summons and everything that happened during the court action.
11. Mr X has the right to request his records, known as a subject access request. If he considers the Council has not complied as it should, he can complain to the Information Commissioner. Parliament set up the ICO to consider data protection disputes which includes disputes about failure to disclose records. The Information Commissioner is better placed than us to consider if the Council has failed to comply with the law. I see reason why it would be unreasonable to expect Mr X to use this route in this case.
12. Mr X also complains about the Council’s complaint handling, and the language used in an enforcement agents’ letter. It is not in the public interest for the Ombudsman to investigate ancillary matters if we are not investigating the substantive complaint.

Final decision

13. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because Mr X used his right of appeal to the Valuation Tribunal, we cannot investigate actions relating to court proceedings and Mr X can reasonably raise complaints about his data with the Information Commissioner.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman