Summary: The Council is at fault as it did not send Council Tax bills to Mr and Mrs X’s forwarding address. As a result, Mr and Mrs X were wrongly charged court costs and contacted by enforcement agents. The Council has agreed to remedy Mr and Mrs X’s distress and avoidable time and trouble by making a payment of £200 to them.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains that the Council wrongly added recovery costs for Council Tax arrears it had not previously notified her about. The Council also failed to deal with her complaint. As a result, Mr and Mrs X were contacted by an enforcement agent and they were caused anxiety and avoidable time and trouble.

Back to top

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)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

4. I have:
• Considered the complaint and the information provided by Mrs X;
• Made enquiries of the Council and considered the information provided;
• Invited Mrs X and the Council to comment on the draft decision.

Back to top

What I found

5. Mr and Mrs X rented their property to tenants. Mr and Mrs X were liable for the Council Tax during periods in 2016 and 2018 when the period the property did not have tenants. The Council sent Council Tax bills to the property address. This was an error. The Council has said it should have reopened a closed account for Mr and Mrs X and sent the bill to the forwarding address held on that account.
6. Mr and Mrs X were unaware of the bills so did not pay. The Council sent a reminder and summons to the property address. It then obtained a liability order and passed the account to enforcement agents to collect. It had added the summons and liability order costs to the bill at this point. The enforcement agent sent a number of letters to Mr and Mrs X requesting payment and warning it could remove goods.
7. Mrs X sent an email to the Council notifying it she had only just received notice of the bill and asking it to remove the additional costs. Mrs X paid the outstanding Council Tax but did not pay the costs. She sent a number of emails asking the Council to remove the costs as she had only just become aware of the bill.
8. The Council initially required Mrs X to provide Mr X’s authorisation for her to deal with the account as it was in his name. The Council then advised Mrs X it had correctly added the costs to her account. The Council then issued a summons for the costs.
9. Mrs X contacted her MP and the Ombudsman to complain the Council had wrongly added costs to her account.
10. The Council acknowledged it wrongly sent the Council Tax bills to the property address instead of Mrs X’s forwarding address. The Council also acknowledged it did not properly deal with her complaint. The Council apologised to Mrs X, removed the costs from her account and recalled the account from the enforcement agents.
11. The Council has also reminded officers to reopen landlord accounts when a tenant vacates and not a new account to prevent a recurrence of the problems experienced by Mr and Mrs X.

My assessment

12. The Council has acknowledged it is at fault as it did not send the Council Tax bills to Mr and Mrs X’s forwarding address so the bills were not properly served. The Council has apologised to Mr and Mrs X and removed the court and enforcement agent’s costs. So the issue for me is whether this is a sufficient and proportionate remedy for Mr and Mrs X’s injustice.
13. Mr and Mrs X were caused some distress by receiving the enforcement agent’s notices over a number of weeks and by receiving another unnecessary summons. Mr and Mrs X were also put to avoidable time and trouble in having to contact the Council on a number of occasions to try to resolve the matter. The Council should make a payment to Mr and Mrs X to acknowledge this injustice in addition to the apology already made.

Agreed action

14. That the Council makes a payment of £200 to Mr and Mrs X to acknowledge the distress and avoidable time and trouble caused to them by the Council not sending Council Tax bills to their forwarding address and the unnecessary court costs and contact from the enforcement agents. This is in line with our guidance for remedying complaints. The Council should make this payment within one month of my final decision.

Back to top

Final decision

15. The Council is at fault as it did not send Council Tax bills to Mr and Mrs X’s forwarding address. As a result Mr and Mrs X were wrongly charged court costs and contacted by enforcement agents. The Council has agreed to remedy Mr and Mrs X’s distress and avoidable time and trouble as recommended so I have completed my investigation.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman