Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr B’s complaint the Council has collected council tax and issued a council tax rebate to a person who was not the named person on the council tax demand. There is no significant injustice to Mr B arising from this and his complaints of fraud by a third party are matters for the police.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mr B, complains the Council sold a council property to a person who has fraudulently claimed to be someone else. Mr B complains the Council has also sent council tax information to an incorrect person. Mr B complains he has lost £85,000 and his reputation and has had to move to a different part of the country.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe:

• it is unlikely we would find fault, or
• the fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or
• there is another body better placed to consider this complaint (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I have considered the information Mr B provided when he made his complaint. I sent a draft decision to Mr B and considered the comments he made in reply before I made my final decision.

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What I found

5. Mr B says that in June 2004, a person (Person Z) claiming to be somebody else (Person Y) was able to buy a council property. Mr B says Person Y had been deported from this country some time before, but Person Z used false documents to pretend to be Person Y and buy the property.
6. Mr B also complains the Council collected council tax and issued a council tax rebate to Person Z, although the council tax demand was in the name of Person Y. Mr B complains a third party was able to use these documents to defraud Mr B of £85,000.
7. In April 2019, the Council wrote to Mr B and said it had not identified any fraud relating to the issues Mr B had raised but would consider Mr B’s complaints.
8. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. The sale of the property was in 2004, so the complaint is late. And if Person Z has acquired the council property by providing false information, this does not cause Mr B a significant personal injustice. Mr B’s complaints of fraud and stolen identity are matters better considered by the police as they are criminal offences.

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Final decision

9. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is no significant personal injustice to Mr B arising from the sale of the property or if the council issued a council tax rebate to a person who was not the named person on the council tax demand. And Mr B’s complaints of fraud by a third party are matters for the police.

Investigator’s final decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman