The Local Government Ombudsman complaint, line by line

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman receives more than 17,000 complaints a year. Most go nowhere because they're framed as anger, not as maladministration. The investigators are looking for specific things, and a complaint that gives them those things in the first paragraph reaches the right desk in the first week. Here is the structure that does that.

Before you start: jurisdiction

The LGO will only consider your complaint if:

• It is about a council, a school admissions appeal, certain housing matters, an adult social-care provider, or another body within their jurisdiction (the LGO website lists what's in scope).
• You have completed the body's own complaints process, usually two stages, before contacting the LGO. The exception: if 12 weeks have passed and the body hasn't given a final response, you can come to the LGO without finishing the process.
• The matter is fewer than 12 months old (the LGO can extend this in some cases, but assume the deadline is firm).

If any of these don't apply, the LGO will return the complaint at jurisdiction stage. That is the most common reason complaints fail. Check before you write.

How do I make a complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman?

The LGO has an online form, a telephone line, and a postal address. Most people use the online form. Whichever you use, the structure is the same. Five sections.

Section 1: Who and what

The form asks for:

• Your name and contact details
• The name of the council or body
• The dates the events happened
• A short summary of what the complaint is about

Keep the summary to two sentences. The longer it is, the harder it is for the investigator to triage. Example:

"The council continued enforcement action for council tax during my active appeal to the Valuation Tribunal. It refused, without giving reasons, to pause enforcement when I asked."

Section 2: The decisions you complain about

List the specific decisions or actions you say were wrong. Number them. Two to four items is the right size; anything more dilutes the case.

Example:

"1. The council referred my account to enforcement agents on [date], despite knowing the underlying liability was disputed. 2. The council refused, on [date], to pause enforcement during the active Valuation Tribunal appeal. 3. The council failed to give written reasons for that refusal, despite my written request. 4. The council did not reply to my Stage 2 complaint within the 20 working days in its own published policy."

Each line is a separate procedural failure. Each can be tested.

Section 3: Why this is maladministration

Name the categories explicitly. The LGO investigators are quicker on cases where the complainant has done the categorisation:

"In my submission, the matters above amount to maladministration on three grounds: (a) failure to apply judgment, treating enforcement as automatic during a live judicial process; (b) failure to give reasons for the refusal to pause enforcement; (c) breach of the council's own published complaints policy on the timing of Stage 2 responses."

If you've read Blog 2a, this is the framing in action.

Section 4: The injustice you have suffered

Quantify, as far as you can:

• Money out of pocket (bailiff fees, charges that wouldn't have been incurred but for the council's conduct)
• Time spent fixing what shouldn't have needed fixing (this can attract a small distress payment)
• Practical consequences (eviction risk, damage to credit file, loss of benefit)
• Documented distress (medical evidence is rare but powerful)

Example:

"As a result of the matters above, I have: (i) incurred £[amount] in enforcement agent fees that would not have been levied if enforcement had been paused; (ii) spent more than 30 hours of personal time on correspondence over a period when the matter was in active dispute; (iii) suffered documented distress, exacerbating an existing health condition (GP letter attached)."

Section 5: The remedy you want

Be specific. The Ombudsman cannot order a council to do anything technically (its decisions are recommendations), but bodies almost always implement them. The standard menu of remedies:

• Apology in writing
• Refund of specific charges (with itemised amounts)
• Correction of records
• Policy change (where the failure indicates a wider problem)
• Symbolic financial payment for distress (typical band: £100 to £1,000 for moderate distress; higher in egregious cases)

Example:

"I ask the Ombudsman to recommend that the council: (a) refund the enforcement fees of £[amount] charged during the active appeal; (b) issue a written apology; (c) review and publish its policy on enforcement during disputed liability; (d) make a symbolic payment for distress in the sum of £[amount]."

Evidence to attach

Send a focused bundle, not everything. The LGO investigator wants:

• The Stage 1 and Stage 2 final responses from the body
• The council's own complaints policy (download from their website)
• Any policy or procedure document you say was breached
• Key correspondence that proves the timeline (not the whole exchange, the key emails)
• Any independent evidence of injustice (GP letter, bank statements showing the fees)

Number the documents and reference them inline in your complaint ("see Document 4, paragraph 2"). The complaint reads three times faster with numbered references.

What usually happens next

The LGO triages the complaint within a few weeks. If accepted, an investigator is assigned. They will write to the council asking for the council's evidence and reasoning. The council has a deadline to respond. Many cases are resolved at this stage with a recommendation that the council settles before the LGO issues a formal decision.

If a formal decision is needed, the investigator drafts findings, both parties get a chance to comment, and a final decision is published (anonymised, on the LGO website). The whole process typically runs 6 to 12 months.

What gets a complaint rejected at this stage

• Submitting before the council's complaints process is finished, where there's no 12-week silence
• The matter is older than 12 months without explanation
• The complaint is essentially a disagreement with the merits of a decision the council was lawfully entitled to make
• The complaint is about a body the LGO doesn't cover (NHS, central government, courts)

The LGO will tell you if any of these apply. If you can fix it, fix it and resubmit; if you can't, the right route is judicial review, the FOS, or a different ombudsman.

The bottom line

The LGO complaint that progresses is the one that gives the investigator a clean structure: who, what decisions, why this is maladministration, the injustice, and the remedy. Anger and length both reduce the chances of getting heard. Specificity and structure improve them.

Docketory publishes general information based on real disputes. Identifying details are changed and patterns from multiple cases may be combined. This is not legal advice. For advice on your specific situation, contact a solicitor or Citizens Advice.

Related on Docketory:

• Blog 2: Council tax: appealing doesn't pause the bailiffs. Here's what does.
• Blog 2a: What counts as maladministration, and how to prove it
• Blog 2c: Council tax appeals at the Valuation Tribunal: what to expect