The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate the Council’s response regarding changes to its council tax enforcement processes as this does not cause Mr X a level of injustice that would warrant our further involvement.
The complaint
Mr X complained to the Council about its council tax enforcement procedures and considered his case resolved when the Council made an undertaking to implement several measures. Mr X is unhappy as he says the Council has not done this to his satisfaction and delayed in providing its response to him. Mr X says this has caused him time and trouble and stress and uncertainty.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
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 any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr X is unhappy the Council will not supply him with documentation regarding training it carried out with its enforcement team, that it has not changed a template document about court attendance at liability order hearings which Mr X says deters residents from attending court, that it referred to HMRC in a letter instead of HMCTS, ignored his correspondence for one month and provided inadequate responses.
I recognise Mr X is unhappy with the Council’s responses, and why he has sought to facilitate service improvements for residents of the district, but I do not consider he is personally impacted by this to a degree that would warrant our further involvement, or that it would be in the public interest for us to investigate. I appreciate Mr X spent time pursuing the matter but essentially it was his own choice to do this and as such, this is not an injustice we would seek to remedy.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because he is not caused a level of personal injustice from it that would warrant our further involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman