Summary: We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint that the Council wrongly pursued him for business rates for which a third party is liable. This is because the matter concerns the start of court action. We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s failure to obtain payment from the third party as the issue affects ‘all or most’ of the people in its area. Both issues are excluded from investigation under Schedule 5 of the Local Government Act 1974.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains the Council took court action against him for unpaid business rates he was not responsible for. He also complains the Council has not done enough to recover business rates from the liable party or to stop business rates fraud generally.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Ombudsman investigates 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’.
3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. We cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended)
5. We cannot investigate something that affects all or most of the people in a council’s area. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(7), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

7. The primary function of the Ombudsman is to remedy injustice caused to individual members of the public as a result of fault by local authorities and care providers.
8. Mr X’s injustice in this case stems from the court action taken by the Council and we cannot investigate this for the reason set out at Paragraph 4.
9. Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s failure to recover payment from the liable party or to do more to deal with fraud generally is also excluded from investigation under the Local Government Act 1974 as something which affects ‘all or most’ of the people in the Council’s area rather than Mr X personally.

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Final decision

10. We cannot investigate this complaint. This is because it concerns the Council’s start of court action and the impact of non-payment of business rates, which is a matter concerning ‘all or most’ of the people in its area.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman