Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s decision to hold her liable for business rates. This is because the courts are better placed to deal with the matter. We cannot investigate Ms X’s complaint about her landlord as they are not a body within our jurisdiction.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Ms X, complains the Council has held her liable for business rates relating to a business premises she is no longer responsible for. She also complains about the treatment she received from her landlord. She says the matter has caused her financial difficulty and ill-health.

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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, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or
• there is another body better placed to consider this complaint.

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

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate. We cannot investigate complaints about the actions of landlords. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 25 and 34A, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I reviewed Ms X’s complaint, shared my draft decision with her and invited her comments.

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What I found

5. Ms X leased business premises from her landlord for several years. She says he took back possession in 2018 and she is unhappy that the Council held her liable for business rates for the premises.
6. Business rates liability is decided by the magistrates’ court. If therefore the Council charged Ms X business rates which she disputed her remedy lay in putting her comments forward at court in defence of any action by the Council to recover the charges. The Ombudsman does not have the expertise to decide disputes over business rates liability; we will not therefore investigate this matter further.
7. While Ms X also raises several concerns about the actions of her landlord, we have no jurisdiction over this individual. We cannot therefore investigate these issues.

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Final decision

8. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because the courts were better placed to decide any dispute over Ms X’s liability for business rates and we cannot investigate the actions of her landlord.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman