Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about a business rates matter. This is because his complaint about the Council’s refusal to award small business rates relief is late and its failure to deal with his complaint did not cause Mr X significant injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains the Council has failed to respond to his complaint about recovery action for unpaid business rates. Mr X wants the Council to apply small business rates relief to his account for the period 2008-10 and refund all monies paid under an instalment plan agreed in 2021.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (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 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)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mr X’s representative, Mr Y, and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mr X agreed a payment plan with the Council to settle his unpaid business rates in November 2021. The Council recalled the case from its enforcement agents and Mr X agreed to pay £75 per month towards the debt.
7. Mr Y made a complaint at Stage 1 of the Council’s complaints procedure by responding to the Council’s email confirming the payment arrangement seven months later, in June 2022. However he says the Council failed to respond to the complaint. Mr Y brought the complaint to us in March 2023, more than eight months later.
8. While Mr Y complains about the Council’s handling of his complaint we would not investigate this issue in isolation. This is because it did not cause Mr X significant injustice separate from that which he claims from the Council’s failure to backdate small business rates relief.
9. Both Mr X and Mr Y were aware of the substantive issue concerning the Council’s billing for business rates by November 2021 at the latest. We would therefore have expected them to complain to the Council and bring the matter to us within 12 months, but they did not do so. The complaint is therefore late.
10. I note Mr Y’s point about the Council’s failure to respond to the complaint but this does not provide good reason to exercise our discretion to investigate the matter further. There was ample opportunity for Mr X (or Mr Y) to complain to the Council and refer the matter to us within 12 months of the date they became aware of the issue regardless of the Council’s failure to respond.
11. However even if we did exercise our discretion to investigate it is unlikely we could achieve any worthwhile outcome for Mr X. This is because the issue concerns the question of whether Mr X’s business premises qualified for small business rate relief between 2008 and 2010 and Mr Y has provided no conclusive evidence to show they did.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because the complaint is late and I have seen no good reasons to exercise our discretion to investigate it.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman