Summary: Mrs C complains the Council has asked her to pay an outstanding bill to an estate she is not the executor of. We uphold the complaint. The Council has agreed to provide a letter of apology. That, and its offer to reissue the bill to the executor, is a suitable remedy.

The complaint

1. The complainant (whom I shall refer to as Mrs C) complains the Council is demanding payment from her for a debt she is not liable for. The bill relates to her late mother’s (Mrs D) care fees. But Mrs C is not an executor of the estate and has no access to her mother’s bank account.
2. Mrs C says she would like an acknowledgment she is not liable for the account. And that the reason the bill remains outstanding is due to the Council’s actions.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. If we are satisfied with a council’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. As part of the investigation, I have:
• considered the complaint and the documents provided by Mrs C;
• made enquiries of the Council and considered its response;
• spoken to Mrs C;
• sent my draft decision to Mrs C and the Council and considered the comments I received.

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What I found

The Council’s procedure for collecting final amount from estates

6. In response to my enquiries, the Council advised:

‘When a client passes away, we rely on a family member advising us either by letter, telephone or email of the clients passing and providing us with details of the executor. If this does not happen and we are only informed of a date of death internally, for example from research or other departments such as the Council Tax department, then we will look for a Tell Us Once document completed by the family to retrieve the required information.

If we do not have formal notification of an executor following any of the above methods, we presume the Next of Kin is executor providing we have their details. The Personal Finance Unit will then issue the final account to either the executor or NOK.’

What happened

7. Mrs D passed away in April 2018. Two days before she died, the Council sent her an invoice for care fees.
8. Mrs C says she retrieved the invoice from Mrs D’s home, after her death. She also the contacted the Council. She
• advised it Mrs D had died;
• gave it details of the executors of Mrs D’s estate; and
• told it she did not have access to Mrs D’s bank account.
9. Mrs C says during that call she was told to ignore any subsequent invoices or reminders.
10. Mrs C says the executors of the estate did not hear from the Council about the outstanding invoice. But in the summer of 2019 the Council wrote to Mrs C about it. When Mrs C questioned this, the Council responded. It acknowledged Mrs D’s death had been reported to it.
11. Mrs C continued in communication with the Council about the outstanding amount. It advised it wanted payment of the bill. This correspondence continued into 2020. In March the Council demanded payment within seven days. It advised her of the possibility of legal proceedings, if she did not settle the debt.
12. In July the Council wrote to Mrs C. It noted the information Mrs C had given the Council in 2018 did not seem to have been passed to the correct team. It said it assumed this was human error. It sincerely apologised.
13. Mrs C complained to the Ombudsman. In response to our enquiries, the Council advised:

‘I…note and therefore acknowledge we had been advised a [different person (Mr C)] was executor, not Mrs [C] as we had previously detailed. I can only apologise that this error was not picked up sooner, and the correspondence addressed correctly to Mr [C]. I can arrange for copies of all previous correspondence to be reissued to Mr [C] if required and again would like to apologise for this error on our behalf.’

Analysis

14. The Council has accepted it did not record details of the executors of Mrs D’s estate. That was fault.
15. Mrs C’s complaint to the Council in 2019, and correspondence about this into 2020, did not resolve this, as it should have done.
16. Mrs C will have been caused some unnecessary distress and time and trouble by the faults I have identified.
17. Mrs C says the bill remains outstanding, because of these errors. But that is something for the executor, not Mrs C, to raise with the Council.

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Agreed action

18. The Council has offered to send the invoice to the executors. It has also agreed to my recommendation that it provide a fuller letter of apology: for the distress to Mrs C of being chased for the debt, including being threatened with enforcement action.

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Final decision

19. I uphold the complaint. The Council has agreed to my recommendations, so I have completed my investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman