Summary: The Ombudsman upholds Mrs X’s complaint about how the Council handled a council tax exemption on an empty property. The Council did not apply or remove the exemption correctly which led to a delay in issuing a council tax bill. This caused Mrs X distress. The Council agreed to apologise to Mrs X and pay her £100 in recognition of the confusion caused by its mistakes. It will also remind staff dealing with council tax enquiries about the circumstances in which the Valuation Office Agency may remove a property’s banding and ensure they are directing owners to the agency correctly.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council did not tell her about a change to the exemption status of her property and delayed in issuing a council tax bill. She says the unexpected bill caused her avoidable distress.

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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’. 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)
3. 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)
4. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone can appeal to a tribunal. The Valuation Tribunal deals with appeals against decisions on council tax liability and council tax support or reduction. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to appeal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered the complaint made by Mrs X and the documents she provided.
6. I considered the Council’s comments about the complaint and the documents it provided in response to my enquiries.
7. I gave Mrs X and the Council an opportunity to comment on my draft decision and I considered their responses.

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What I found

Background

8. Councils have considerable discretion over the levels of council tax discount they can apply to empty properties.
9. Many councils offer no discounts for empty properties while others offer a short period of exemption followed by a discount or full liability for council tax.
10. Exemptions for an uninhabitable or unoccupied and unfurnished dwelling apply to the property and not the owner. If a council has already applied an exemption under a previous owner, the council is not required to apply it again for a new owner unless the property has been occupied for at least six weeks in between.
11. At the time of the events in this complaint, the Council offered a 30-day exemption from council tax for empty properties. After this the owner became liable for an ‘Empty Homes Premium’ of 50% on top of the normal council tax charge.
12. The Valuation Office Agency is responsible for keeping council tax bands up to date. In some circumstances, including when properties are undergoing major renovation or structural alterations, the agency may delete a property’s band. This means the owner would not be liable for council tax. Once the works are complete, the agency would apply a band and the owner would become liable for council tax again.

What happened?

13. Mr and Mrs X bought a property for renovation in December 2017. Mr X contacted the Council to advise they would not be living in the property as it would soon be uninhabitable.
14. The Council told Mr X it would exempt the property from council tax for 30 days. Mrs X says the Council did not offer any further advice about what to do other than to wait for a letter which would follow. She says they were not told they could contact the Valuation Office Agency to ask for the property to be removed from the valuation list.
15. Mrs X says they received no further communication about the exemption.
16. The Council issued a council tax bill in March 2018, covering the period April 2018 to March 2019. It said Mr and Mrs X had nothing to pay.
17. In January 2019 the Council issued two separate bills showing Mr and Mrs X owed over £1,800 in unpaid council tax for the period December 2017 to March 2019.
18. When Mrs X contacted the Council it told her the previous bill, issued in March 2018, was wrong. At this point it advised Mrs X to contact the Valuation Office Agency and to make a complaint to the Council.
19. Mrs X did complain to the Council. The Council said the 30-day exemption was entered incorrectly without an end date. As a result, the Council did not remove the exemption until it identified the error in January 2019. It said despite the error Mr and Mrs X were liable for the outstanding council tax.
20. The Council says it has now removed the 30-day exemption for every empty property from 1 April 2019 and reminded its staff to take more care when inputting accounts and dates onto the system for all exemptions.
21. Mr and Mrs X contacted the Valuation Office Agency which removed the property from the valuation list and backdated this to January 2018. The Council removed Mr and Mrs X’s liability for council tax back to the beginning of January 2018. Mrs X paid the outstanding council tax liability for December 2017.
22. In its response to my enquiries, the Council said it should not have applied the 30-day exemption in December 2017 as it had previously applied it in May 2017 at the request of the previous owner.

Analysis

23. The Council is at fault for failing to check its records before advising Mr X it would apply the 30-day exemption, and at fault again for failing to end the exemption on time. As a result, it issued an inaccurate council tax bill which led Mr and Mrs X to believe they had nothing to pay. It then delayed in issuing a correct bill.
24. The Council also failed to tell Mr and Mrs X about their right to ask the Valuation Office Agency to remove the property from the valuation list due to its condition. This was fault. It should have done this at the point it applied the 30-day exemption, albeit in error.
25. Mrs X says the bill in January 2019 showing the outstanding council tax liability arrived when the family was experiencing financial hardship and came as a huge shock. She said if the Council had notified them of their council tax liability sooner, they would have arranged to pay over a longer period. Alternatively, if the Council had told them about the Valuation Office Agency they would have challenged their liability sooner and avoided the need for a bill to be issued at all.
26. The Council has now corrected its records and charged Mr and Mrs X the correct amount of council tax so they have no outstanding liability.

Agreed action

27. Within one month of this decision, to remedy the injustice caused by the faults identified above, the Council will:
• apologise to Mrs X and pay her £100 in recognition of the distress caused by the way it handled the exemption.
• remind staff dealing with council tax enquiries about the circumstances in which the Valuation Office Agency may remove a property’s banding and ensure they are directing owners to the agency correctly.

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Final decision

28. I uphold this complaint for the reasons given in the Analysis section of this decision.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman