Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about Mrs X’s council tax account. We have already considered part of the complaint and will not deal with a new complaint about the same issues now. The Council was entitled to pursue Mrs X for the arrears on her account and we cannot investigate its application to the court for a liability order.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains about the Council’s handling of her council tax account. She says the information it provided was unclear, leading to arrears, and it has now provided new information which shows a balance on the account which was not there when she complained to the Ombudsman previously.
2. Mrs X complains the Council continued enforcement action despite her complaints and applied to the court for a liability order for unpaid council tax. She also says the Council is not engaging with her attempts to settle outstanding arrears following issue of the liability order.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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)
5. 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)
6. 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

7. I considered information provided by Mrs X and the Council.
8. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

9. Mrs X has previously complained to us about the Council’s handling of her council tax account, including unclear billing and lack of clear information about her account. Mrs X says she has new information which brings into question our previous decision but I cannot consider as part of this new complaint whether our previous decision was wrong. Mrs X has already raised her concerns with the Investigator who dealt with her previous complaint and they have confirmed our decision remains unchanged. Because we have already considered Mrs X’s complaint about this issue we will not reconsider it now.
10. Mrs X’s complaint about the Council continuing recovery action on her council tax account while she was in the process of complaining is a new issue but the Council was under no obligation to stop enforcement action in these circumstances. We could not therefore say its action amounted to fault or recommend a remedy for this.
11. Part of the Council’s recovery action involved applying for a liability order from the court. But this matter is outside our jurisdiction because we cannot investigate the commencement or conduct of civil proceedings before any court of law. The exclusion at Paragraph 5 therefore applies.
12. Mrs X says she has tried to discuss with the Council whether arranging deductions from her benefits can cover the arrears. She says the Council has not responded to her attempts to arrange payment since issuing a liability order. But Mrs X has not yet raised this point with the Council as a formal complaint and the requirement set out at Paragraph 6 is therefore not met. If Mrs X wishes to pursue the issue she can raise a new complaint with the Council; if, once Mrs X has completed the Council’s complaints process she remains unhappy, she may refer the issue back to us and we will consider whether to investigate it further.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because part of it we have already considered. There is no fault by the Council in failing to pause recovery action whilst we investigated Mrs X’s previous complaint and we cannot investigate her complaint about its application for a liability order. Mrs X can complain to the Council about new matters.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman