Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s actions related to historical council tax arrears. Part of the complaint is late and there is insufficient evidence of fault in its decision to take recovery action.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council is unfairly pursuing her for historical council tax arrears. She says it failed to provide her with appropriate housing support at the time the debts accrued and the long delay taking recovery action is unfair and has caused her additional distress. She wants the Council to stop all recovery action and write off the debt.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. 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

4. I considered information provided by the complainant.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Ms X complains the Council failed to provide appropriate housing support nine years ago, which contributed to her accruing the debt. We will not investigate this part of the complaint as it is late. If Ms X was dissatisfied with the Council’s actions at that time, she could have approached us sooner. There is no good reason to investigate this now.
7. Ms X also says that the delay taking recovery action to collect the debt is unfair. She says the decision to pursue the debt now does not account for her circumstances at the time and is causing her distress and financial hardship.
8. We will not investigate this complaint. In its complaint response, the Council offered Ms X the opportunity to set up a payment arrangement, and it was open to Ms X to do this. The Council has a liability order for the debt and there is no legal time limit for recovery action, so it is unlikely we would criticise a decision to take recovery action. There is insufficient evidence of fault to warrant an investigation.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because part of the complaint is late and there is insufficient evidence of fault in the Council’s actions to warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman