Summary: Ms X complains about the Council’s handling of her council tax account. We have completed our investigation. The Council is at fault for not making a decision about Ms X’s application for discretionary relief. The Council should apologise, pay Ms X £150, and issue a decision.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains about the Council’s handling of her council tax account. In particular that:

1. The Council cancelled her direct debit in 2014 without telling her;
2. The Council has not applied all payments she has made to her debt;
3. The Council has not properly assigned all her payments; and
4. The Council didn’t make a decision about her request for discretionary council tax relief.

2. As a result, Ms X says she has experienced distress and anxiety.

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What I have investigated

3. I have not investigated Ms X’s complaint that the Council cancelled her direct debit in 2014 without telling her. I have set out my reasons for this at the end of this decision.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. 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)
5. 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)
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 spoke to Ms X about the complaint.
8. I made written enquiries of the Council.
9. I referred to the Ombudsman’s Guidance on Remedies, a copy of which can be found on our website.
10. Ms X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

11. Ms X has Council Tax arrears. She fell into arrears in 2014 when the Council cancelled her direct debit without telling her. Ms X says she did not notice she was no longer paying Council Tax for several years.
12. In 2018, Ms X started to pay Council Tax again and to address her arrears. Usually, she paid the Council directly. On two occasions she paid through bailiffs instructed by the Council to recover the debt.

Payments and Recovery

13. Ms X says the Council has not applied all the payments she made to her debt. She provided a list of these payments and the dates she made them. In response to my enquiries, the Council provided a breakdown of Ms X’s payments. The Council’s record shows all the payments Ms X identified.
14. There is a difference in the amount Ms X paid and the amount the Council received for the payments Ms X made through bailiffs. This is because the bailiffs recover costs before passing on payments to the Council.
15. There is no fault by the Council in how it received Ms X’s payments towards her arrears.
16. Ms X also says the Council has not properly allocated all her payments, resulting in unnecessary recovery action. In December 2018, Ms X made the first of three agreed instalments to pay her 2018/19 bill. The Council says Ms X made the first payment into the wrong account. This meant the computer system showed Ms X as having defaulted on the arrangement. As a result, the Council passed the debt to a recovery agency.
17. However, when Ms X complained the Council recognised she had made the first payment. It therefore recalled the debt from the recovery agents and cancelled the associated costs.
18. This is a suitable remedy for the injustice caused.

Discretionary Council Tax Relief

19. Councils have discretion under s13A(1)(c) of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 to reduce or ‘write off’ council tax debt. I will refer to this as s13A relief.
20. In April 2019, Ms X wrote to the Council to ask for help under s13A. In May 2019, the Council put recovery action on hold for 30 days while it assessed Ms X’s application.
21. In May 2019, the Council asked Ms X to complete a financial statement. Ms X did so.
22. In June 2019, in response to a complaint from Ms X the Council told Ms X “your application was considered but unfortunately rejected, I understand that you might not have been made aware of that”.
23. However, the Council accepts it has no record of how it considered Ms X’s application for s13A relief. This is fault.
24. Decisions about whether to use s13A discretion carry a right of appeal to the Valuation Tribunal. By failing to issue a proper decision, the Council denied Ms X the opportunity to appeal the outcome and caused her unnecessary frustration. She went to time and trouble to make the request and provide the financial information the Council asked for with no resolution.
25. The Council should apologise to Ms X and pay her £150. It should now consider the request and issue a decision. This will give Ms X her appeal rights.

Recommended action

26. Usually, the Ombudsman would recommend the Council now consider the application for s13A relief. However, the additional injustice caused by the unnecessary delay would usually result in a financial remedy of more than Mr X owes. Therefore, the Council should:
• Apologise in writing; and
• Clear the outstanding balance on the previous property; and
• Pay Mr X £50.
27. The Council should take this action within four weeks of my final decision.
28. The Council should also take the following action to improve its service:
• Produce guidance for relevant staff on the process for assessing requests for s13A relief;
• Remind relevant staff to keep records of all decisions; and
• Remind relevant staff that all decisions communicated to taxpayers should explain any rights of appeal to the Valuation Tribunal.
29. The Council should take this action within eight weeks of my final decision.

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Final decision

30. I have completed my investigation. There is some fault by the Council. The action I have recommended is a suitable remedy for the injustice caused.

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Parts of the complaint that I did not investigate

31. I did not investigate Ms X’s complaint that the Council cancelled her direct debit in 2014 without telling her. This is because the complaint is late and there are no good reasons to exercise discretion to investigate it now.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman