London Borough of Ealing (19 016 579)
Category : Benefits and tax > Other
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 28 Feb 2020
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: The complaint is about the Council asking Mr B to pay business rates and court costs. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint because the Council is no longer asking Mr B to pay anything. Further investigation would not achieve anything significant.
The complaint
- Mr B complained the Council asked him to pay business rates before granting him rates relief and also asked him to pay court costs. He considered it unjustified that he would have to pay court costs.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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 further investigation will lead to a different outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered the information Mr B provided and a response the Council sent us. I gave Mr B the opportunity to comment on my draft decision.
What I found
- Mr B states the Council demanded business rates that he did not believe he owed. He then obtained business rates relief so the Council no longer sought payment of the rates. When Mr B complained to us, the Council was asking him to pay £147.50 court costs. The Council has now withdrawn the court costs as a goodwill gesture.
- As the Council is no longer seeking any payment, I do not consider the events complained of cause Mr B any continuing injustice that is significant enough for the Ombudsman to pursue. We could not achieve significantly more by investigating the complaint.
- Mr B also said he wanted a Council officer to be removed but that is not something the Ombudsman can achieve.
Final decision
- The Ombudsman should not investigate this complaint. This is because the complaint is effectively resolved.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman