Summary: Mrs X complains about delay by the Council in billing her for business rates on a property. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint because the claimed injustice is speculative until the outcome of a tribunal decision.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains about delay by the Council in billing her for business rates on a property.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe:

• it is unlikely we would find fault, or
• the fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

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

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered the complainant's and Council's comments. The complainant has commented on the draft decision.

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What I found

4. Mrs X bought a site in December 2017 which included an old derelict building. She says she phoned the Council at that time to ask about business rates liability but was told she would have to await a bill in the post. This did not arrive until August 2018 and was incorrectly addressed. The bills were corrected by November 2018.
5. Mrs X says that she then had the buildings demolished. She says that, had she known she would be liable for the buildings she would have knocked them down immediately (thereby avoiding business rates for that period up to November 2018).
6. She has appealed to the Valuation Office Agency to have the buildings de-listed.
7. Mrs X says she has to pay extra business rates because of the Council’s delay in sending the bill. Whilst the Council denies unreasonable delay (it says they have no record of the original call in 2017), any assessment of the bill she has to pay depends on the outcome of the Valuation Office Agency appeal (which may then go to a Valuation Tribunal).
8. So, until the outcome of the appeal is known, the Ombudsman cannot assess the injustice incurred by Mrs X. The Ombudsman will not therefore investigate this complaint at this time but Mrs X may make a further complaint to this office once the outcome of the appeal is known.
9. If Mrs X wishes to argue that the bill cannot be enforced because it was issued late, then only a court can determine this argument.

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Final decision

10. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint because the injustice is speculative at this stage.
     

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman