Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that his council tax bill is wrong as the Council has now rectified this.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council wrongly charged him full council tax for a period he lived alone.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe it is unlikely we could add to any previous investigation by the Council (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I have considered what Mr X said in his complaint.

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What I found

4. Mr X complains the Council wrongly charged him full council tax for a period he lived alone.
5. The Council explains it removed the single person discount from Mr X’s account as it understood that another person was living at Mr X’s address. It acknowledges that Mr X provided evidence earlier in the year which clarified this and that the discount should have been reinstated to the account. The Council has now done this.

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Final decision

6. My decision is that the Ombudsman should not investigate this complaint. This is because the Council has rectified the issue Mr X complains about.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman