Summary: Mr D complained about the Council’s handling of his council tax account and council tax support (CTS). There was fault by the Council. It delayed reinstating Mr D’s CTS and delayed telling him he needed to make a new claim. Because of the fault, Mr D suffered distress, and it meant he continued to chase the Council about the matter. The Council has agreed to make a symbolic payment, award Mr D any outstanding backdated CTS owed to him, and issue a staff briefing.

The complaint

1. Mr D complains about the Council’s handling of his council tax account and council tax support (CTS). He says the Council:
• issued liability orders to him and instructed enforcement agent involvement for a period when he was not liable to pay council tax;
• delayed and poorly handled the reinstatement of his CTS; and
• caused a potential data breach by sending correspondence to an address he was no longer living at and sending correspondence to his mother’s address.
2. Mr D says the Council’s actions have caused distress to him and have had an impact on his mental and physical health. He also says they have put a strain on his family life, and he has spent a lot of time and resource in attempt to resolve the issues.
3. Mr D would like the Council to:
• acknowledge and apologise for the distress caused to him;
• provide a financial remedy; and
• improve its internal communication.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. 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 significant injustice, or that could cause injustice to others in the future we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
5. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
6. We normally expect someone to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner if they have a complaint about data protection. However, we may decide to investigate if we think there are good reasons. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
7. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(1), as amended)

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What I have and have not investigated

8. I have investigated matters in this case from April 2023 – 12 months before Mr D brought his complaint to us – to February 2025, when the Council sent Mr D its final complaint response. I reference matters outside of these dates for context.
9. I have not investigated:
• Matters in this case before April 2023. Matters before this time are late. I do not consider there is good reason Mr D could not have complained to us about events before this date sooner.
• Mr D’s complaint about any potential data breach. The Information Commissioner is better placed to investigate data-related matters, and Mr D has confirmed he has already complained to the Information Commissioner.

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How I considered this complaint

10. I read Mr D’s complaint and spoke to him about it on the phone.
11. I considered evidence provided by Mr D and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
12. Mr D and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

Council tax recovery

13. The council tax bill for the year is due on 1 April. A council will usually collect this through monthly instalments. If a person who has to pay council tax misses any instalment, the council will send them a reminder. If they still do not pay, or miss another payment, then they must pay all they owe (that is the full amount for the rest of the year).
14. Councils who want to recover unpaid council tax have to ask the magistrate’s court for a liability order against people it thinks owe it the money. Once a council has a liability order it can take action to recover the money and any court costs owed.

Council tax reduction/support

15. Council tax reduction (CTR, also known as council tax support) is a discount, not a benefit. It reduces the amount of council tax a person has to pay.

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What happened

16. This is a summary of events outlining key facts, and it does not cover everything that has happened in this case.

Council tax and council tax support at property X

17. In March 2023, the Council sent Mr D his annual council tax bill for 2023 to 2024, to his last known address, his mother’s house. The Council says there was no discount or reduction applied to the bill as Mr D’s property, which I will refer to as property X, was marked as a second home. The Council says this was due to Mr D decanting himself from property X and living at his mother’s house. It says it decided Mr D was liable for the council tax as the property repairs had been completed, but Mr D refused to move back to his property. Mr D says the property was uninhabitable and the Council failed to decant him.
18. In mid-May 2023, Mr D was issued with a summons for non-payment of his council tax bill for the period 2023 to 2024 for property X. At the end of that month, the Council withdrew the summons and associated costs, and reinstated Mr D’s CTS and single person discount. This was following a decision made by the Housing Ombudsman on a complaint Mr D had raised with it about the decant. The Housing Ombudsman decided the Council should have decanted Mr D from property X, and so he should have still been in receipt of CTS. The Council wrote to Mr D to confirm it had withdrawn the summons and it would shortly send him a revised council tax notice with details of his credit balance. It also confirmed it would refund Mr D the council tax monies he had overpaid, and that enforcement action had ended.
19. In February 2024, as part of a standard review, the Council sent Mr D a CTS review form to property X. If Mr D did not complete and return the form within one calendar month, the Council said the claim would be suspended. In April 2024, the Council wrote to Mr D to advise his claim had been suspended as he had not returned the form to it. The Council said the claim could be reinstated if Mr D returned the form by early April 2024. In late April 2024, the Council sent a council tax bill to Mr D, which he asked the Council about. He told the Council he was still decanted from property X, so there was no council tax to be paid by him. The Council told Mr D his CTS had been cancelled from late April 2024 as it had not received a response from Mr D about the review form or reminders it had sent him.

Council tax and council tax support at property Y

20. In September 2024, the Council sent Mr D an opening council tax bill for his current property, which I will refer to as property Y. Mr D wrote to the Council and told it he did not need to pay for council tax until he moved into property Y, as he was still decanted at the time from property X. Mr D moved into property Y on 3 October 2024.
21. In mid-October 2024, the Council sent Mr D a reminder. Mr D responded to the Council and told it that it had an obligation to ensure he did not have to pay council tax during the period he remained decanted, and the Council should have reinstated his CTS without delay. Mr D complained to the Council about this.
22. In December 2024, the Council sent Mr D its response to his complaint. It told him:
• The Council stopped his CTS because he did not return the review form. The Council realises it sent the correspondence relating to this matter to property X, which Mr D was not living at. The Council apologised for this.
• The Council had revised the decision to stop Mr D’s CTS, and it had reapplied this to Mr D’s account from June 2024 to September 2024. It told Mr D it would confirm any additional CTS owed to him once it had got a reply from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) about a change there had been to Mr D’s Universal Credit.
23. Mr D told the Council there were outstanding concerns and he would like a financial remedy of £6,500; an apology; reinstatement of his CTS; and details of actions the Council would be taking to prevent similar errors in future. In February 2025, the Council sent its final complaint response to Mr D. It told him:
• There was no CTS applied to Mr D’s account as there was no live claim. It said it had not received any further information from DWP, and the Council is unable to pay any further support based on the current information it had. The Council told Mr D it required a further breakdown of his Universal Credit to progress this, and he could make a claim online with a request for it to be backdated. The Council apologised for the delay in confirming this.
• The Council apologised for the time taken to resolve matters and told Mr D a financial remedy of £100 it had previously offered to him was appropriate.
• The Council had noted Mr D had not paid council tax since signing his tenancy agreement for property Y. It told him it could offer a payment arrangement to help reduce arrears and he could get in touch with the Council to arrange this. The Council also told Mr D the hold it had placed on his account meant no further bills would be sent to him, but if he did not contact the Council by February 2025, the hold would be automatically removed, and recovery action would continue for the council tax due for this year.
• The Council is continuing to review its record-keeping and data management processes, and it hopes an upgrade of the council tax portal will allow service users to easily notify it of changes in circumstances and access up-to-date statements.
24. Mr D has confirmed the Council reinstated his CTS in early 2025, and issues with his council tax account have been sorted.

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Analysis

Council tax and council tax support at property X

25. The Council stopped Mr D’s CTS in late April 2024 as Mr D did not respond to the review form it had sent to him. The Council has apologised to Mr D for sending the review form and associated letters to property X which Mr D was not living at. But I do not consider the Council was at fault for this. The Council had a duty to send documents to the ‘proper address’ it held on file for Mr D. In March 2023 after the Council sent Mr D his council tax bill to his mother’s address, the Council says Mr D asked the Council to remove her address from his account, which the Council did. So, in the absence of a more up-to-date address, the Council acted correctly by sending the documents to property X, Mr D’s last known address. So, I cannot say the Council was at fault for sending the documents to property X.
26. However, the Council was at fault for the delay in it reinstating Mr D’s CTS. Mr D immediately told the Council of his circumstances and that he was still decanted on receipt of the bill it sent him in April 2024. At this point, I consider the Council should have reviewed its decision to stop Mr D’s CTS and ask him for any outstanding information it might have needed to reinstate his CTS up to the point his tenancy at property X ended. But the Council did not do this. It told Mr D in December 2024 it had revised its decision and reinstated the CTS from June 2024 to September 2024. But it could have done this sooner, in April 2024 when Mr D asked the Council about the bill he had received.

Council tax and council tax support at property Y

27. Mr D moved into property Y in October 2024. The Council billed Mr D for council tax at this property and sent reminders to him in October 2024 and January 2025 after non-payment. In response to my enquiries, the Council says this was because it expected Mr D to make a claim for CTS for property Y. In the absence of a claim, no CTS was in place for Mr D at property Y. The Council told Mr D the information it required from him and that he could make a claim for CTS online when it sent him its final complaint response in February 2025. But the Council should have told Mr D this sooner, as far back as Autumn 2024 when it knew he was moving to property Y. The Council did not do this. This was fault.
28. The Council’s poor communication and delay in telling Mr D he needed to make a new claim for property Y and asking him for the information it needed caused an injustice to Mr D. By delaying the reinstatement of Mr D’s CTS and allowing matters to drift, Mr D accrued council tax arrears and was being chased by the Council for this. This caused distress to Mr D, and it meant he continued to contact the Council to chase up the reinstatement of his CTS. The Council has acknowledged and apologised to Mr D for its delays, so I have not recommended the Council apologise to Mr D. However, I do not consider the financial remedy of £100 the Council offered to Mr D is adequate to acknowledge the injustice caused to him. I have made a recommendation below to reflect this.
29. We have published guidance to explain how we calculate remedies for people who have suffered injustice because of fault by a council. Our primary aim is to put people back in the position they would have been in if the fault by the council had not occurred.
30. Sometimes we will recommend a financial payment to the person who brought their complaint to us. This might be to reimburse a person who has suffered a quantifiable financial loss, or it might be more of a symbolic payment which serves as an acknowledgement of the distress or difficulties they have been put through. But our remedies are not intended to be punitive and we do not award compensation in the way a court might.

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Action

31. To remedy the outstanding injustice caused to Mr D by the fault I have identified, the Council will take the following actions within four weeks of my final decision:
• Pay Mr D £250 to acknowledge the injustice caused to him by the identified fault.
• If it has not done so already, award Mr D any outstanding backdated CTS owed to him for both property X and Y. For property X, this should be from April 2024, when the Council stopped Mr D’s CTS, to October 2024, when his new tenancy started. For property Y, this should be from when the tenancy started, to early 2025, when it reinstated Mr D’s CTS.
32. Within three months of my final decision, the Council will also:
• Issue a briefing to relevant staff to remind them of the importance of reinstating and applying CTS to accounts in a timely manner. Also, to advise service users where necessary, that they need to submit a new CTS claim. This will help to ensure delays in the CTS claim process are reduced and avoid arrears accruing.
• Decide ways it can improve its internal communication between the council tax and benefits departments. The Council should provide us with evidence of what action it has decided to take within three months. Following this, it should send us evidence it has taken these actions within the subsequent three months.
33. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

34. I uphold Mr D’s complaint and find fault causing injustice. The Council has agreed actions to remedy injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman