Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about Mr X’s business rates. It is for the courts to decide liability for business rates while the property was unoccupied. The complaint about the lack of help with business rates during COVID-19 restrictions is late without good reason to investigate it now and any investigation now would be unlikely to reach a clear enough view on that.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about the Council demanding over £4,000 in business rates.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We have the power to start or end an investigation into a complaint about actions the law allows us to investigate. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we think the issues could reasonably be, or could reasonably have been, or actually have been mentioned as part of court proceedings. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended, section 34(B))
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 the complainant.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mr X owns and rents out a business property. The Council says the property was empty for nine months. For three months of that period, while the tenants’ lease was still running, the Council exempted the tenants from business rates as it considered the property unoccupied. After the tenants’ lease ended, the Council said Mr X was responsible for the business rates until new tenants moved in. The Council refused to give Mr X any unoccupied property exemption, saying it had already given the maximum three months’ exemption to his former tenants. The Council says this is in line with the law on liability for business rates and rateable occupation, which does not simply depend on whether a lease is active. Mr X considers this wrong.
7. If Mr X believes he should not have to pay, the Council cannot make him pay unless it gets a court order for payment. Any argument about whether the tenants, or Mr X, or both, should have received any exemption while the property was empty is an argument about legal liability to pay business rates. That is properly for the courts to decide. Only the courts, not the Ombudsman, can interpret the law. In November 2023 the Council said it would take Mr X to court. If the Council did not take him to court and get a court order saying he must pay, then he need not pay. If the Council went to court, Mr X would have had the opportunity to argue his case for the court to decide. Either way, this is not properly a matter for the Ombudsman to decide.
8. The period when Mr X was seeking new tenants (May to August 2020) was during the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, when it could be harder to find tenants and for new tenants to move in and start operating. The Council gave Mr X no business rates relief or reduction to recognise that. Mr X, as the owner of business premises, could reasonably have known at the time that the Council was not offering him help. There was no complaint to us until November 2021, over 12 months later, and that complaint to us did not mention this aspect, it only mentioned the three-month unoccupied relief aspect. Mr Y, who represents his relative Mr X, mentioned this point when he brought the complaint back to us in November 2023. So the restriction in para 3 applies. I consider any complaint about this point could reasonably have been brought to us sooner. It is also unlikely we could reach a clear enough view now about any consideration of such matters nearly four years ago.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. The question of liability for business rates while the property was unoccupied is for the courts. The complaint about the lack of help with business rates related to COVID-19 is late without good reason to investigate it now and any investigation now would be unlikely to reach a clear enough view on that.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman