Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about Council tax payments as there is no evidence of fault by the Council and part of the complaint is out of time.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains that the Direct Debit scheme he used for paying his Council tax was unfair and unreasonable which led to Council tax arrears.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. 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))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mr X says that the Direct Debit he used for paying his Council tax meant that his payments were altered unreasonably which led to arrears. Mr X cancelled his Direct Debit in 2022. I consider that this part of the complaint is out of time as a complaint could reasonably have been made to us within 12 months.
7. I note that the Council has provided a statement of his liability and his payments. This statement explains why arrears arose following insufficient payments towards the Council tax debt.
8. The Ombudsman is not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly, we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong, regardless of whether one disagrees with the decision the organisation made.
9. There is no evidence of fault by the Council in the way the Council has taken action in response to Mr X’s remaining arrears. The Ombudsman would not therefore investigate this matter further.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because part of the complaint is out of time and there is no evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman