Blackburn with Darwen Council (25 025 922)
Category : Benefits and tax > Council tax
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 24 Jun 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about two council tax summonses. We cannot investigate court proceedings. There is not enough evidence of fault in other matters to justify investigation.
The complaint
- Mr X complains the Council has not provided summons documents relating to two council tax years or explained the costs added. He says he requested the information but the Council continued court proceedings and then took recovery action. He also says the Council unfairly refused to consider his stage two complaint.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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).
- 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))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council. I also considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- We cannot investigate court proceedings which includes the issue of the summons, the liability order hearing and the costs added. The law does not allow us to investigate as I explain in paragraph 2.
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that the Council should not take recovery action while his request for documents was outstanding. There is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigation. There is no requirement to pause recovery while a query is outstanding.
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council refusing to respond at stage two. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it relates to court proceedings. There is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigation into other matters.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman