Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint about action taken by the Council in relations to business rates. The complaint is made too late and is about matters the courts have considered.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to here as Mrs B, has complained about fault in how the Council dealt with her over business rates. She says the Council wrongly held her liable for the rates at a business which has led her to suffer stress and financial hardship.
2. Mrs B is also unhappy with how the Council has dealt with her complaints about its actions.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. 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)
5. We cannot investigate a complaint about the start or conduct of proceedings in a court of law. We have no discretion in this. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended)
6. 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.
7. The Courts have said that we cannot investigate a complaint about any action by a council concerning a matter which is itself out of our jurisdiction. (R (on the application of M) v Commissioner for Local Administration [2006] EHWCC 2847 (Admin))

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How I considered this complaint

8. I have considered what Mrs B said in her complaint and background information provided by the Council.

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What I found

9. The Council considered Mrs B and another person were jointly liable to pay business rates on a property.
10. The Council says it issued five summonses for unpaid business rates between 2006 and 2014. The courts held Mrs B liable for the business rates.
11. The Council then began bankruptcy proceedings and a court declared Mrs B bankrupt in 2014.
12. The Council has declined to consider Mrs B’s subsequent complaints because they are about decisions made by the courts.

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Final decision

13. I have decided we will not investigate this complaint. This is because it is about matters that happened more than five years ago and have been the subject of proceedings in a court of law. We will not investigate how the Council has dealt with complaints when we will not investigate the substantive issues.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman