Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this council tax complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Ms X, says the Council gave her inaccurate information and refused to give her a refund after it double-charged her. Ms X wants compensation for her emotional distress.

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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’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if we believe it is unlikely we would find fault. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I read the complaint and the Council’s response. I obtained additional information from the Council about events since it replied to the complaint. I considered comments Ms X made in reply to a draft of this decision.

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What I found

Council tax

4. The law says people must pay their council tax before the instalment date stated on the bill. If people pay late on more than two occasions they lose the right to pay by instalments. The Council can then demand that they pay the full amount which is due for the rest of the year. If they do not pay the Council can serve a summons and ask the magistrates for a liability order. A liability order is a court order confirming the person must pay the council tax and costs.

What happened

5. Ms X was paying her council tax by direct debit. She was not sure if the payment due on 1 September had gone through so she called the Council. An officer told her the payment had been successful. Ms X was shocked to discover in October that the Council was trying to take two instalments. She called the Council again and a different officer told her that it can take a few days for the system to show if a direct debit request has been successful. The officer said it could not issue a refund because it would put her account into arrears.
6. In response to her complaint the Council explained that the system is not updated until the second day of the month. It said the first officer should not have told her that the direct debit had been successful because this information would not have been known until 2 September. It said the officer should have told Ms X to call back on 2 September or to check with her bank. The Council apologised and said the officer would receive training.
7. The Council told me that the direct debit request due on 1 September failed. The instalment due in October also failed. The Council sent notifications about both failed direct debits. The Council sent a final notice on 30 October which required payment of all the outstanding council tax for the year.
8. Ms X paid £129 on 31 October which covered the September instalment but she had not paid the instalment due for October. The Council issued a court summons on 4 December because Ms X had not bought the account up to date. The court issued a liability order in January and Ms X made a payment arrangement with the Council.

Assessment

9. I will not start an investigation because, apart from the misinformation during the first call, there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council. The case ended up in court not because of what the officer told Ms X during the first call, but because Ms X failed to maintain her payments. By October Ms X knew the September payment had failed. If she had paid the September and October instalments then the account would have been bought up to date and the Council would not have needed to take further action. I appreciate the wrong advice provided during the first call was unhelpful but this did not cause the subsequent reminders or court action.
10. Ms X says the Council took a double payment and refused to make a payment plan. However, a double payment was not made because both the September and October direct debits failed. Ms X then made a payment but this was not enough to clear the arrears. The Council also accepted the payment plan Ms X offered in January.

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Final decision

11. I will not start an investigation because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman