Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with Mrs X’s council tax payments. An investigation is unlikely to find fault causing injustice.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains that the Council has failed to obtain payments for her Council tax between July 2019 and November 2019.
2. As a result of this, the Council has accrued unpaid charges which it is now asking Mrs X to pay.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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:

• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

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

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered the information Mrs X provided as part of her complaint. I have also requested and considered information provided by the Council. I gave Mrs X the opportunity to comment on my draft decision.

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What I found

5. Mrs X says that she pays for her council tax through direct debit. This payment has been made on a monthly basis.
6. The Council has advised that it was informed of a change of occupancy for Mrs X’s property in June 2019 and it closed her account at this time. When Mrs X contacted the Council in November 2019, the Council re-opened the account, and loaded the missed payments onto the account for her to pay.
7. The Council says it closed the account in June in good faith but has not provided and supporting evidence to show why.
8. However, the Council’s action has not caused a significant injustice to Mrs X. This is because a person is liable to pay their council tax. Despite the Council failing to obtain payment from June 2019 to November 2019, charges for the council tax are still valid and the Council is not at fault for expecting payment from Mrs X. There are no grounds to recommend the Council waives the council tax payments as per Mrs X’s request.
9. Council tax is usually paid by ten monthly instalments from April to January. Mrs X’s payments were £106 per month from April 2019. If an instalment is not paid, the remaining council tax for the year becomes payable immediately.
10. Councils have discretion to decide when the instalments will be payable. By agreement a council and a taxpayer may make a special payment arrangement outside of the normal instalment scheme. The council has used reasonable discretion to not request payment in full and offered Mrs X a suitable repayment plan.
11. The Council has provided evidence of a letter sent to Mrs X in June 2019 confirming closure of her account. The Council was no longer obtaining the direct debit payment from July 2019. This demonstrates that Mrs X should have been aware that the payments had stopped from July 2019.
12. I would not consider that an investigation by the Ombudsman would achieve a different outcome given the lack of significant injustice caused.

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Final decision

13. My decision is that the Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because any potential fault on the part of the Council has not caused significant injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman