Summary: Miss F complains the Council enforced a council tax debt to an address she had not given it. And, as a result, she incurred costs that were avoidable. The Ombudsman’s decision is the Council acted in good faith in using information a third party gave it. Miss F had not given it an alternative address. So we do not uphold the complaint.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall describe as Miss F, complains:
• the Council sent council tax invoices to a wrong address, when it had always sent them to a different address. She cannot understand why that changed.
• She only found out about the invoices after contact from enforcement agents.
• The Council refuses to admit its error. So it is refusing to credit her £158.50, which are the costs and fees she would never had had to pay if the Council had correctly billed her.

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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)

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How I considered this complaint

4. The information I have seen includes the documents Miss F supplied with her complaint and the Council’s responses to the Ombudsman’s enquires. I sent my draft decision to Miss F and the Council and invited their comments.

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What I found

Legal and administrative background

Council tax

5. Council tax is a tax made on domestic properties. Councils issue one bill to each household. Residents of dwellings, including tenants, are usually liable for council tax from the date they moved into the property. If a private rented property is unoccupied, liability for council tax passes to the owner.
6. Where a sum of council tax is unpaid, a council may seek an order from the magistrates’ court known as a liability order. This confirms the amount owed and who is liable to pay it. When a liability order has been made, a council has several alternatives available to pursue the debt. One option is to instruct enforcement agents. (Regulation 45 of the Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992)
7. The law says that councils can serve a document about billing or enforcement of council tax by delivering it in person, leaving it at the person’s proper address, or sending it by post to their proper address. Proper address is taken to be the last known address. There is no need to use registered or recorded post. Unless the contrary is proved, a document is deemed to have been served by post when it would be delivered in the ordinary course of post. (Local Government Act 1972 (Section 233); Regulation 35(2) of The Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992; The Interpretation Act 1978 (Section 7))

The Council’s policy on charging council tax on empty homes

8. The Council has a policy that it will not charge council tax for the first month that unfurnished properties are unoccupied. After that, full council tax is payable.

What happened

9. In 2012 Miss E was living in the Borough (at an address I shall refer to as Address 1), with another person (Mr G). In November, she bought a leasehold property elsewhere in the Borough (Address 2). The Council says Miss E’s solicitors told it about Miss E’s purchase of the lease in December 2012.
10. In late February 2013 Miss E’s mother (Ms F) contacted the Council to advise it she was moving to address 2 on 1 March. She advised it Miss E was her landlord and gave it Address 1 as where Ms E was living. She also gave the Council the address she was moving from (Address 3), where somebody (with the same surname) would remain living. The Council made Ms F liable for Address 2’s council tax from 1 March.
11. The Council’s records show that in October 2013, Mr G advised it Miss E had left Address 1 in June. He gave the Council Address 3 as Miss E’s forwarding address. The Council updated its records for Address 2’s council tax account.
12. In March 2018 Ms F contacted the council tax department to advise it she had moved out of Address 2. As the property was unoccupied, the Council changed the liability for council tax to the leaseholder (Miss E). In May it sent her a new bill, after the end of the empty home discount (see paragraph 8). It sent this bill to Address 3, which was the address the account had as Miss E’s contact address.
13. Miss E did not respond to the bill, a later reminder, or summons. In September the magistrates’ court granted the Council a liability order, which included an amount for costs.
14. Meanwhile, the new owner of Address 2 advised the Council they had bought that property. The Council sent Miss E a closing bill to Address 3.
15. The Council has a note of trying to trace Miss E in October 2018. It would seem this was unsuccessful, as its next action, in May 2019, was to refer the debt to enforcement agents. The agents added a compliance fee to the debt.
16. The enforcement agents found Miss E at an address in a different council’s area. Miss E disputed her liability for the costs, as she had not received the billing documents. The Council disagreed.
17. Miss E paid the debt, but complained. The Council’s response advised:

“We were provided with [Address 3] as your contact address in 2013, after you moved out of [Address 1], and we had never been provided with a different address for you. Also, none of the correspondence we sent to [Address 3] was returned to us, and so we had no reason to believe that it was not a correct address for you.”

18. Miss E continued to dispute her liability for the added costs, so she complained to the Ombudsman.

Was there fault by the Council?

19. Council tax law says councils should serve documents to the last know address it has for a taxpayer. In this complaint, the address it had was Address 3. I have seen the evidence in its records of being given that address for Miss E. My view is it was entitled to use that information in good faith.
20. The Council had no reason to use that information until 2018. That is because, while there was a tenant in Address 2 (Ms F), it was her, and not Miss E, who was liable to pay the council tax. So council tax would have had no reason to contact Miss E.
21. That changed in 2018, when Address 2 became vacant. Liability for council tax then passed to Miss E. She says she had never given Address 3 as a contact address. I have no reason to question that. And I agree there is nothing in the Council’s records to suggest she had.
22. But there is equally nothing in the Council’s records to suggest Miss E had given it an alternative contact address. And I note that none of the documents about the unpaid debts the Council sent to Address 3 were returned. So it cannot have known this was not the correct address.
23. Having taken these issues into account, my view is there is no evidence of fault by the Council.

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Final decision

24. I do not see any evidence of fault, so I do not uphold the complaint. I have completed my investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman