Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about council tax handling from 2019. This is because the complaint is late, and it was reasonable to expect Mr X to appeal to the Valuation Tribunal.

The complaint

1. Mr X is a landlord of a House in Multiple Occupation which consists of several flats let to students. He complains the Council delayed properly listing his property for council tax between 2019 and 2025. Mr X says the address the Council used was wrong and he contacted it about this several times. While the Council has corrected the address in 2025, Mr X says it is now impossible for him or his tenants to claim a student exemption. In his view the Council’s earlier bills were invalid.

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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. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone has a right of appeal, reference or review to a tribunal about the same matter. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to use this right. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
4. The Valuation Tribunal deals with appeals against decisions on council tax liability and council tax support or reduction.

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. Mr X complained to the Council regarding the matters in paragraph 1.
7. In late 2025 the Council replied that:
• the council tax list was compiled in conjunction with the Local Land and Property Gazetteer. This is an address database maintained by local authorities. The Council said it could not amend its records until the LLPG advised it to do so.
• its bills were addressed to identifiable units because tenancy agreements Mr X had sent referred to both the original and new addresses. Mr X also provided a spreadsheet in 2023 confirming the correlations between each address.
• It had advised Mr X to contact street name and numbering in January 2024 to start the process of revising the addresses.
• It had issued valid notices each year from 2019 to the HMO owner’s registered office address. Summonses were sent less than 6 years after the amount fell due.
• It considered it had billed Mr X correctly for all the years from 2019, but it agreed to write off the 2019/20 debt.
• It would not pause recovery action unless it had evidence of an appeal to the Valuation Tribunal.
8. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is late and there is no good reason for this. Mr X was aware of the matter by at least November 2023 when he emailed the Council. However, he did not complain to the Ombudsman until January 2026.
9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that the Council failed to apply the correct exemptions. It was reasonable to expect Mr X to appeal to the Valuation Tribunal if he considered the properties should be exempt because they were occupied only by students. The addressing issue would not have prevented Mr X from appealing to the tribunal as he and the Council were aware of the correlation between the different addresses from early 2023.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is late and it was reasonable to expect him to appeal to the Valuation Tribunal regarding the exemptions he sought.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman