Summary: We will not investigate Mr and Ms X’s complaint about how the Council dealt with Ms X’s garage tenancy. The complaint is late and Mr X has already been to court about the matter.

The complaint

1. Mr and Mrs X complain the Council wrongly repossessed a garage in Ms X’s name and disposed of its contents in 2015. Mr X also complains the Council ignored his requests for information and handled his complaints poorly.

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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 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)
4. 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 have been mentioned as part of the legal proceedings regarding a closely related matter. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8))
5. 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)
6. 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))
7. The Information Commissioner's Office considers complaints about freedom of information. Its decision notices may be appealed to the First Tier Tribunal (Information Rights). So where we receive complaints about freedom of information, we normally consider it reasonable to expect the person to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner.
8. We normally expect someone to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner if they have a complaint about data protection. However, we may decide to investigate if we think there are good reasons. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

9. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
10. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

11. Mr and Ms X complained the Council wrongly repossessed a garage that was licensed to Ms X, who is Mr X’s mother, and disposed of its contents in 2015. They say the Council should not have taken this action and that it later failed to properly look into their concerns.
12. We normally expect people to complain to us within twelve months of them becoming aware of a problem. Mr X and Ms X were both communicating with the Council about the garage before and after it was repossessed in 2015. Mr X did not complain to the Ombudsman on behalf of Ms X until 2026. I can see no good reason why either Mr X or Ms X could not have brought the complaint to us sooner. We will not exercise our discretion to look into this complaint further.
13. Even if the complaint was not late, we would not investigate.
14. We cannot investigate matters that have already been considered by the court. The court could consider evidence from both Mr X and the Council and decide whether the Council acted properly in repossessing the garage and disposing of its contents. We cannot investigate matters that have been, or could reasonably have been, considered by the courts, nor can we challenge their decisions.
15. Mr X also complains about how the Council has used his data, responded to his freedom of information (FOI) requests and subject access requests (SARs). He says the Council has failed to provide requested information in a timely manner.
16. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) deals with enforcing data protection legislation and investigating complaints about handling personal information. If Mr X remained dissatisfied with the Council’s response, the ICO is better placed to consider and decide such matters.
17. Mr X also complains about the Council's handling of his complaint. We will not look into this, as it is not a good use of public resources to consider complaint handling where we are not investigating the substantive issue.

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Final decision

18. We will not investigate Mr and Mrs X’s complaint because it is late and Mr X has already been to court about the matter.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman