London Borough of Bromley (19 017 817)
Category : Benefits and tax > Council tax
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 19 Feb 2020
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: Ms X complains that the Council did not update her Council tax record and, as a result, she received a reminder letter for unpaid Council tax. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint because there is insufficient injustice to warrant investigation.
The complaint
- Ms X complains that the Council did not update her Council tax record and, as a result, she received a reminder letter for unpaid Council tax.
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, or
- the fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
- the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
(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
- Ms X says that she told the Council when she moved house in October 2019 that she would need her Council tax bill revised. However, in the absence of a new bill she contacted them to ask for an update. The Council says it advised her that they had not been contacted by her and she was in arrears with her Council tax. A reminder letter had been sent to her old address.
- The Council has now updated her records.
- I appreciate that Ms X is concerned that a reminder letter had been sent to her former address but the new occupant would not have been allowed to open the letter by law. Ms X says that she was later entitled to a refund which was delayed 3 months.
- I appreciate that the matter was stressful for Ms X and caused a degree of time and trouble but I am not persuaded that the injustice is sufficient to warrant investigation.
Final decision
- I will not investigate this complaint because there is insufficient injustice to warrant investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman