Preston City Council (23 011 162)
Category : Benefits and tax > Other
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 15 Nov 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about payments of Business rates.
The complaint
- Mr X complains that the Council unreasonably took him to court to enforce a Business rates debt which he intended to pay.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We investigate 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’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide:
- there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
- any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
- any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X says that he made four regular payments of Business rates in 2023 and intended to pay the rest in September. However, the Council says that the payments had not all been made within 14 days of the date demanded. The Council says that they were legally entitled to obtain an order (which resulted in costs of £92) as the payments had not been made in time.
- The Council’s decision to enforce the debt once payments had not been made in time was not, in my opinion, the result of administrative fault by the Council. In the absence of fault, the Ombudsman cannot question the decision to pursue legal action.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman