Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about enforcement action to recover Council Tax debts. This is because part of the complaint is late and Mr X has not suffered significant injustice.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about the action the Council took to recover Council Tax Debt and says it did not effectively handle his complaint about the matter.

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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 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)
4. 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:

• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Mr X has previously complained to the Ombudsman about the same issues, and we sent him a decision. We will not consider the same matters again as part of this complaint.
8. Mr X says some of the issues he has now raised were not included in his original complaint. But even if I did agree that some parts of his complaint were new issues, my decision not to investigate would remain the same as Mr X’s complaint is late. A complaint is late if it has taken someone more than a year to complain to the Ombudsman. The issues Mr X has raised occurred in 2014. I see no good reason to exercise discretion to investigate now as Mr X could have complained to the Ombudsman sooner.
9. Mr X has complained about how the Council dealt with his recent complaint. I do not consider the injustice Mr X has suffered because of any fault with how the Council dealt with his complaint would be significant enough to warrant an investigation by the Ombudsman as a standalone issue. Therefore, we will not investigate the Council’s handling of Mr X’s most recent complaint.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because parts of the complaint are late and Mr X has not suffered significant injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman