Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s recovery of historic council tax arrears. This is because any injustice Mr X may have suffered is not significant enough to justify our involvement. Mr X also had the right to appeal to the Valuation Tribunal.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council is trying to recover council tax from 2018. He says he only became aware about it when the Council contacted him in 2025. He says he asked for copies of the historic correspondence which was not provided. He says the situation has caused him stress and anxiety as he cannot understand if he owed the money why it has taken the Council so long to contact him. Mr X wants the Council to apologise for the distress and write off any outstanding debt related to the account.

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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. 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.
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, 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

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

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My assessment

8. The property was a new build and awaited a council tax banding decision from the Valuation Office Agency (VOA). The Council received the VOA's valuation in May 2018 but did not process the information and issue a council tax bill until September 2018. By that time, Mr X had left the property.
9. The Council said Mr X did not tell it he had moved or provide a forwarding address. In this instance the Council followed the correct procedure to secure a liability order which was served at Mr X’s last known address, the property he had occupied.
10. Mr X complained he did not know about the outstanding council tax debt and considers it unreasonable the Council did not contact him until 2025 about a liability dating from 2018. The Council said it made various attempts to trace Mr X, including attempts to apply an Attachment of Earnings order, before it was eventually able to contact him.
11. There was a delay in the Council issuing the first council tax bill to Mr X. However, it is the taxpayer’s responsibility to tell the Council when they move out of a property and to provide forwarding contact information. Had Mr X done so, the bill issued in September 2018 could have been sent to his new address at the time. The Council offered Mr X the opportunity to set-up a repayment plan and provided him with information about how he could appeal to the Valuation Tribunal. On this basis, any injustice Mr X may have suffered because of the Council’s delay is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
12. If Mr X did not agree he was liable to pay the council tax I consider it would have been reasonable for him to appeal to the Valuation Tribunal. The Ombudsman will not usually investigate if someone had the right to appeal.
13. Mr X also complained the Council did not provide copies of historic correspondence. The Council asked Mr X to clarify exactly which documents he wanted. Even if there was fault in the way the Council dealt with this request, this would not cause Mr X a separate significant injustice. We would not normally investigate complaint handling as a stand-alone issue where we are not investigating the underlying matter. It would therefore not be a good use of public resources to investigate the Council's complaint handling separately.

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Final decision

14. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because any injustice Mr X may have suffered is not significant enough to justify our involvement. Mr X also had the right to appeal to the Valuation Tribunal if he disputed liability for the council tax.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman