Summary: Mr X’s liability for business rates has been determined in court and so we have no remit to investigate. Much of Mr X’s complaint is also made late to us as he has not complained to us within a year of him knowing about the problem. We would expect Mr X to argue his case in court about the current charge the Council asks him to pay as the court is best placed to do so.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council has wrongly held him liable for business rates and that this has impacted his mental health. Mr X wants the Council to cancel the liability.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. 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)
4. 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 another body better placed to consider this complaint (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
5. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. Mr X has been in dispute with the Council about business rates liability since 2019.
9. Business rates liability is ultimately decided in the Magistrates’ court. The court held Mr X liable for business rates, by awarding liability orders, for previous years’ liability, up to and including for the year 2022/2023. As the liability for these years has been decided by a court, we no longer have the legal remit to investigate, as per paragraph five.
10. We would expect Mr X to present his case in court against the current year’s liability, should the Council refer the matter to court. We are not empowered to determine liability and case law around such matters is highly technical. We would therefore not investigate this part of his complaint.
11. In addition, Mr X’s complaints about previous years’ liability are made late to us as Mr X knew the Council was holding him liable more than one year ago. The law says we should generally only investigate complaints made to us within one year of the complainant knowing about the problem unless there are good reasons. Mr X has not explained the reason for the delay in coming to us and I consider it is reasonable to expect him to have complained to us sooner and within a year of him becoming aware of the issues. As such, notwithstanding the barrier referred to above in paragraph nine, I do not consider there are good reasons to investigate Mr X’s late complaints.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the historical liability has been decided in court and current liability is also a matter for the court. Mr X’s complaint is also in large part made late to us and there are not good reasons for us to investigate now.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman