Challenges to the legality of Council Tax

A request for information which would not identify a living individual will usually be a freedom of information request (FOI).

An FOI relates only to information the council already holds. Questions about legislation and laws and whether the council is bound by them do not constitute an FOI. We do not have to create or conduct new research to answer an FOI.

If you want details of what information about you the council holds you can make a Subject Access Request. Such a request should not be an attempt to stop or delay paying Council Tax, instigate a dispute about Council Tax or its applicability to you or complain about or dispute a Liability Order.

While we do our best to answer all relevant enquiries about Council Tax, we reserve the right to refuse to respond to requests that appear to be:

• a challenge to Council Tax, as legitimate appeals have a specific process
• enquiries that focus on ancient legislation and/or hypothetical arguments which do not appear to have any legal basis

Replying to these enquiries would use our resources at the expense of other taxpayers.

Such requests will be treated as unreasonable and/or vexatious and will be refused either under the appropriate sections of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 or using the exemptions in the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK GDPR.