Summary: Ms B complains about the Council’s handling of historic council tax debt. She considers the Council has not provided sufficient information to show she owes the money claimed. She says that as a result there has been action by enforcement agents. That, and her contact with the Council, has been stressful. There was fault by the Council for which it should apologise and make a small payment to Ms B.

The complaint

1. Ms B complains about the Council’s handling of historic council tax debt. She considers the Council has not provided sufficient information to show that she owes the money claimed. She says that as a result there has been action by enforcement agents (bailiffs). That, and her contact with the Council, has been stressful.

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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. 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)
4. We cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended)
5. When considering complaints, if there is a conflict of evidence, we make findings based on the balance of probabilities. This means that we will weigh up the available relevant evidence and base our findings on what we think was more likely to have happened.
6. 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

7. I considered the complaint and documents provided by Ms B and spoke to her. I asked the Council to comment on the complaint and provide information. I sent a draft of this statement to Ms B and the Council and considered their comments.

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What I found

8. Ms B has lived on her own at the same property for the whole period covered by her complaints. She says that between 2008 and 2014 she was in full-time education and was therefore exempt from council tax. She recalls that she may have had some telephone contact with the Council and any query about her liability was always resolved. She said that when she left university she did fail to pay her council tax for 2014/15. In 2016 she says she received letters from bailiffs saying she had a council tax liability.
9. Over 2016/17 Ms B had contact with the Council trying to resolve matters. By the end of 2017 it appears Ms B thought the matter was resolved. At the end of 2018 bailiffs contacted Ms B and she renewed her complaints with the Council. This culminated with a meeting with a Council officer in August 2019. Ms B expected to receive further correspondence from the Council providing explanation and clarity about the sums due. She did not hear anything but bailiffs again visited her property. She made a complaint to the Ombudsman at the end of 2019.

Analysis

10. The Council has obtained eight liability orders from the court against Ms B for various council tax debts going back to 2007/8. We do not have jurisdiction to question those orders. But I can consider the action the Council has taken to recover the sums due.
11. There are sums due on Ms B’s council tax accounts going back as far as 2010/11. Every year when the Council issued the annual council tax bill the debts for previous years was shown on the statement. I have seen no evidence to show what Ms B did to question the debts at the time. In saying that I note Ms B’s comments that there was telephone contact which she believed always resolved any outstanding issues. But the written information she was receiving from the Council each year was putting her on notice that the Council considered there was ongoing liability.
12. There was some recovery action in 2016 which resulted in contact between Ms B and the Council. If Ms B was not satisfied with the response she received from the Council at that time then it would have been possible for her to make a complaint to us then. Ms B has said that she was unaware of our service so could not complain and the Council did not signpost her to us or respond to her complaints. We have been in existence for many years and an internet search will find us. We do not, therefore, accept not knowing about us as a reason why we should make an exception to our usual requirement that people should complain to us within a year of them believing something has gone wrong. I am not, therefore, going to consider further any of these earlier events.
13. In late 2018 bailiff action recommenced. This included visits by bailiffs to Ms B’s home and telephone and email contact over 2019. I do not consider there was any fault in this recovery action restarting. Ms B knew there were historic council tax debts and, although there had been no action for some time, there was nothing to show that the matter had been resolved.
14. There was a meeting in August 2019 between Ms B and a Council officer where it appears it was agreed that the Council would write to Ms B setting out the position with the historic liabilities. The Council put further recovery action on hold but did not write to Ms B. It then instructed the bailiffs to recommence action. I consider this was wrong and the Council should have written to Ms B as it had agreed to do. I consider the Council should apologise to Ms B and make a small payment to acknowledge the distress caused to her. That payment can be off-set again her council tax liabilities.
15. However I have no grounds to say there was other fault by the Council or that Ms B does not owe the sums the Council considers are due.

Agreed action

16. Within one month of the final decision the Council will apologise to Ms B and pay her £100 which can be off-set against her council tax liabilities. It should also write to her setting out the current position on all the historic council tax debts. If Ms B wants to make an arrangement to pay the Council should consider that before recommencing recovery action.

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Final decision

17. There was fault by the Council for which it should apologise and make a small payment to Ms B.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman