Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s refusal to award her a COVID-19 business grant in 2020. This is because the complaint is late and it would have been reasonable for her to complain about it sooner. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint that the Council has obtained liability orders for unpaid business rates for the period 2020 to 2023 because there is not enough evidence of fault. If Mrs X believes she does not owe the business rates or that the Council failed to follow the proper process she may wish to apply to the court to set aside the liability orders.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mrs X, complains the Council wrongly refused her application for a COVID-19 business grant in 2020. Mrs X believes she was entitled to the grant so she decided not to pay the business rates she owed, believing the Council would offset them from the grant monies it did not pay her. She is unhappy the Council has now taken court action against her for her unpaid business rates.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. 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

5. I considered information provided by Mrs X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. The Council wrote to Mrs X with its decision to refuse her COVID-19 business grant application in April 2020. If Mrs X was unhappy with the decision we would have expected her to complain about it, firstly to the Council and then to us, within 12 months the decision, by April 2021. But Mrs X did not complaint to us until April 2024 and her complaint is therefore some three years late.
7. Mrs X suggests she had assumed the Council would offset the unpaid business rates against the grant payment she believes she was entitled to but there is no evidence to show the Council agreed to this. The Council’s position at the time, and which it confirms now, is that Mrs X did not meet the criteria for the grant payment and is therefore not entitled to receive the payment or use it to offset the business rates she owes. I therefore consider it would have been reasonable for Mrs X to complain to us within 12 months of the Council’s decision to refuse her application.
8. Mrs X also raises concerns about the way the Council handled the unpaid business rates. Specifically she says she received invoices for 2020/21 and 2021/22 but was not informed the Council had taken action against her for non-payment at court. She says she only found out about this in 2023 when the Council issued an invoice detailing amounts owed for each year and setting out the dates it obtained liability orders for the business rates which remained unpaid.
9. The Council says it sent Mrs X notification of the court hearings and confirms Mrs X has not made any payments towards her business rates account since November 2019. It would not be possible for us to prove the Council did not send the letters, or that non-delivery was the result of any fault by the Council.
10. If therefore Mrs X believes she does not owe the money and that the Council failed to follow the proper process she may apply to the court to set aside the liability orders. It is ultimately for the courts to decide if Mrs X should pay the Council’s invoices and we cannot overturn their decision that she must.
11. Mrs X should however keep in mind that the court cannot decide, as part of an application to set aside the liability orders, that the Council should have issued her the COVID-19 business grant in 2019 or, therefore, that it should offset the business rates owed against the amount of the grant now. The Council’s decision not to award Mrs X the grant stands and does not provide any basis for Mrs X to refuse to pay the business rates she owes.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s decision to refuse her COVID-19 business grant application is late and there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council in relation to its pursuit of the unpaid business rates. If Mrs X believes she does not owe the outstanding business rates listed in the liability orders and that the Council failed to notify her of the hearings she may wish to apply to the court to set the orders aside.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman