Summary: Mrs X complains that the Council imposed costs on her for a failure to notify the Council of her change of circumstances. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint because the matter has been resolved and there are insufficient grounds to justify investigation.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains that the Council imposed costs on her for a failure to notify the Council of her change of circumstances.

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’. 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 would find fault, or
• the fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we are satisfied with the actions a council has taken or proposes to take. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(7), as amended)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

4. I considered the complainant's and Council's comments. The complainant has commented on the draft decision.

Back to top

What I found

5. Mrs X says that she encountered several problems attempting to notify the Council of changes to her circumstances for council tax.
6. She says that she tried to use the Council’s online service to notify the Council of a change of circumstances to the rental of her property. The Council says that, following this complaint, it altered the records itself. This left Mrs X a council tax bill which the Council says was not paid (which resulted in the service of a summons and £50 costs).
7. Mrs X then had to make a further change which she also had difficulties with online. The Council provided advice and the change was made.
8. The problems experienced by Mrs X would have been frustrating but I am satisfied that the changes made to the records have been resolved. The summons costs do not appear to relate to the above difficulties and so are not an injustice resulting from fault in my view. I am not persuaded that there are significant grounds to investigate this complaint.

Back to top

Final decision

9. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint because the matter has been resolved and there are no remaining sufficient grounds to investigate the complaint.
    

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman