Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council (19 015 600)
Category : Benefits and tax > Council tax
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 11 Feb 2020
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: Mr X complains that the Council has not recorded his payments towards his Council tax arrears which led to bailiff costs. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint because there is no evidence of fault by the Council.
The complaint
- Mr X complains that the Council has not recorded his payments towards his Council tax arrears which led to bailiff costs.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I have considered the comments of the complainant and the Council and the complainant has had an opportunity to comment on the draft decision.,
What I found
- Mr X was in arrears with his Council tax. The Council assessed that he could pay £50 per month towards the Council tax and arrears. Mr X said that he could only afford £10 per month. The Council says that Mr X did not provide details of his income and expenditure to enable to consider a lower payment.
- The Council passed the recovery of the arrears to a bailiff in 2019. Mr X says that some payments were missed by the Council which led to the bailiff referral. The Council has accounted for the payments referred to by Mr X. The Council could not reasonably reassess a reasonable repayment schedule from Mr X without the information about his income and expenditure as requested by the Council.
- I do not therefore consider that the Council has acted with fault in the way it has dealt with Mr X’s Council tax debt.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman