Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about council tax liability. The complainant has appealed to the Valuation Tribunal and we cannot investigate. We will not investigate other parts of the complaint. There is not enough evidence of fault or the complaint is late.

The complaint

1. Mr X says the Council has registered him for council tax under an incorrect name. He was unable to access his council tax account. The Council obtained a liability order and added £309 costs. This led to severe anxiety.
2. Mr X also complained the Council failed to respond properly to his
• complaint about fraudulent actions by a joint tenant regarding council tax.
• report about an unlicensed House in Multiple Occupation (HMO).
• reasonable adjustments request.
• complaints about noise from February 2024.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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).
4. 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).
5. 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).
6. 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)).
7. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint unless we are satisfied the organisation knows about the complaint and has had an opportunity to investigate and reply. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to notify the organisation of the complaint and give it an opportunity to investigate and reply. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(5), section 34(B)6).

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How I considered this complaint

8. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council. I also considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

9. Mr X is known by another name, and the Council registered him for council tax in that name.
10. Mr X complained to the Council under the alternative name about the matters in paragraphs 1 and 2.
11. The Council replied that it did not uphold Mr X’s complaints. It said Mr X (under the alternative name) was jointly and severally liable for the council tax according to council tax legislation. It said it had not received a request to change the name but it would consider this if it received a request.
12. Mr X has appealed to the Valuation Tribunal regarding the named liable parties for council tax. He also appealed that the property was an HMO and so the landlord should be liable for council tax not the tenants.
13. Mr X has appealed to the Tribunal and so we cannot investigate his complaint that the Council used the wrong name or the complaint that the Council was wrong not to make the landlord liable.
14. We cannot investigate the summons and liability order for council tax because this relates to court action. As I explain in paragraph 4, we cannot investigate the start of court action or what happens in a court. There is not enough evidence of fault prior to the issue of the summons to warrant investigation.
15. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint regarding the Council’s response to his report about an unlicensed House in Multiple Occupation (HMO). This is because the Council has not had an opportunity to investigate and reply.
16. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s response to his request for reasonable adjustments. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant investigation. The Council said it had made reasonable adjustments in line with the Equality Act. It had held recovery and offered support.
17. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that the Council failed to respond properly to his reports of fraud. The Council explained the payment dispute did not affect council tax liability, and Mr X could take civil action.
18. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that the Council did not properly respond to a noise complaint in February 2024. This is because the complaint is late and there is no good reason for this.

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Final decision

19. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we cannot investigate when a complainant has used the right of appeal. We cannot investigate court action. There is not enough evidence of fault regarding other matters and part of the complaint is late.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman