Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s recovery of his outstanding council tax. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to justify us investigating.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about the Council’s recovery of his outstanding council tax. He says the Council wrongly commenced court action against him without notice and while he believed his council tax account was suspended.

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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 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)
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 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

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

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My assessment

7. The Council can take recovery action for unpaid council tax where it has obtained a liability order. The law does not prevent a council from continuing recovery while a dispute is ongoing. However, a council may choose to pause recovery if there is an active appeal.
8. The evidence I have seen shows:
• The Council initially agreed to place a temporary hold on Mr X’s tax account due to a tree dispute;
• On 29 April 2025, the Council advised Mr X that making a claim against the Council should not affect the normal payment of council tax;
• The Council then applied for a liability order for outstanding council tax that Mr X owed. The Council sent Mr X a court summons on 3 June 2025 which advised that a hearing would take place on 30 June 2025. Mr X says he did not receive the court summons;
• On 26 June 2025, a council tax advisor told Mr X during a phone call that no further holds would be put on his account;
• The court granted the Council a liability order on 30 June 2025. The Council sent an enforcement notice to Mr X on 2 July 2025 for payment of his outstanding council tax.
9. We cannot investigate the Council’s decision to initiate court action. This is because the law prevents us from investigating complaints about the start of court action. The period starts from the service of the summons to the end of the hearing. We can however consider whether any earlier action caused Mr X injustice.
10. The evidence I have seen shows the Council notified Mr X about its recovery action when it sent him the court summons. I acknowledge that Mr X says he did not receive this document, however we cannot say this is due to fault by the Council. In any event, he was aware by at least 26 June 2026, that his Council tax payments were due and payable. The fact that he had an ongoing dispute concerning other matters does not prevent the Council from taking recovery action. There is therefore not enough evidence of fault to justify us investigating.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman