Summary: We will not investigate this late complaint about Mr X’s council tax liability. The issues he complains about date back several years to 2004 and there is not a good reason for the delay in him bringing his complaint to the Ombudsman. In any event, the Council via its appeal process, and then the Valuation Tribunal, are best placed to consider challenges to council tax liability.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council wrongly pursued him over several years for council tax dating back to 2002. He says this is racial harassment. He has a significant debt owing to the Council and action by enforcement agents.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone can appeal to a tribunal about the same matter. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to appeal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
4. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint unless we are satisfied the council knows about the complaint and has had an opportunity to investigate and reply. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to notify the council of the complaint and give it an opportunity to investigate and reply (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(5))

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Mr X has been in contact with the Council since 2004 about his council tax bill. The Council says it has been required to obtain liability orders every year since then for unpaid council tax.
8. Mr X first contacted the Ombudsman in November 2021. The law says people must bring complaints to the Ombudsman within 12 months of becoming aware of the matter, however we have discretion to consider older matters where there is a good reason for the delay. This is not the case in this instance.
9. We told Mr X in January 2021 he needed to allow the Council a reasonable opportunity to consider his complaint before we could do so. The Council therefore issued Mr X a final complaint response in February 2022. Mr X did not come back to the Ombudsman until February 2023. There is not a good reason for this delay and we will not now consider matters that led to that complaint.
10. Notwithstanding this, the Valuation Tribunal is best placed to consider complaints about a person’s council tax liability. We cannot decide Mr X is not liable to pay council tax. Therefore, even had we considered the matters in time we would normally expect a person to use their right of appeal to the Council and then the Valuation Tribunal. It is open to Mr X to pursue this option for any more recent liability disputes. He may also ask the tribunal to consider an out-of-time appeal for the older disputes.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s late complaint because there is not a good reason for the delay in him bringing it to the Ombudsman, and in any event he has the right of appeal to the Council and then the Valuation Tribunal.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman