Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaints that the Council mishandled her Council Tax account once she fell into arrears. Some of her complaints are late and for those that are not, there is not enough evidence of fault to justify an investigation.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council failed to communicate adequately with her over Council Tax debts she accrued from 2023 and did not respond in a timely manner to her complaints.
2. She says this has impacted her mental and physical health.
3. She wants a number of outcomes including a suspension of recovery action, an apology, a financial distress payment and service improvements.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. 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)
5. 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

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

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My assessment

8. Ms X has been aware of matters relating the Council Tax debts for 2023/24 for over a year. I can see no good reason why she could not have complained to us earlier so I will not exercise discretion and investigate now.
9. With regard to those aspects of Ms X’s case that are in time, I will not investigate. The Council informed Ms X in writing that she was in debt and the amount she owed, gave her time to set up a payment plan and allowed her to pay the debts by direct debit despite her having cancelled several in the past. These are all actions we would expect the Council to do. Therefore, there is not enough evidence of fault to justify an investigation.
10. Where we decide we will not investigate the substantive matters we will generally not investigate the Council’s complaints handling because there is not usually enough injustice to warrant an investigation. That is the case here.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaints. Some are late and for those that are not, there is not enough evidence of fault to justify an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman