Summary: Mr X complains the Council failed to send council tax bill, reminders and details of recovery action to his home address resulting in additional costs. The Council followed Mr X’s instructions and sent correspondence to the property address. This was not fault. However, it failed to ask for a forwarding address for the final bill, which was fault. The Council should reimburse the costs incurred as a result of the enforcement action.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council failed to send council tax bills, reminders and details of recovery action to his home address resulting in additional costs of £177.50 for a council tax bill of just £23.34.
2. Mr X says he should not have incurred the extra costs and the Council should reimburse him.

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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’. 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)
4. 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

5. As part of the investigation, I have:
• considered the complaint and the documents provided by the complainant;
• made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided;
• discussed the issues with the complainant;
• sent my draft decision to both the Council and the complainant and taken account of their comments in reaching my final decision.

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What I found

6. Mr X contacted the Council by completing an online form on 12 December 2018 about council tax liability. On the form Mr X said he had owned the property since May 2014 and moved into the property on 1 November 2018. Mr X confirmed it was his main address and that he lived there alone so applied for the single occupancy discount. Mr X ticked the box saying correspondence and bills should be sent to that address.
7. The Council sent Mr X a bill for the period 1 November 2018 to 31 March 2019. The charge for the period was £405.03 with the amount payable by Mr X £303.77 after the single occupancy discount of £101.26 was applied. Mr X paid the amount in full by credit card on 17 January 2019.
8. The Council issued new bills for the year 2019/20 to the property address. The Council had not been notified by Mr X of any changes to his occupancy or ownership of the property. The bill for the year again included the 25% single occupancy discount. Mr X did not make any payments for the year 2019/20 and so the Council took recovery action. This included a court summons with costs added. The Court issued a liability order on 6 June incurring further costs.
9. The Council contacted Mr X by telephone on 20 June after post to his address was returned to it. Mr X explained he had sold the property on 12 April. The notes of the telephone conversation indicate the Council advised Mr X to send in details of the sale. Mr X says the Council officer said she would email Mr X with details of the email address to send the documents to. Mr X says as he never received an email, he never provided the details of this sale to the Council.
10. On 3 July the Council’s leasehold sales department provided details of the sale to the council tax department. The Council used this information to close the council tax account in Mr X’s name and the new owner was made liable. The Council then sent a bill for the outstanding amount to the former address. The bill for £125.84 included court costs of £102.50. The Council says it did not have an alternative address to send the bill to.
11. On 9 August the Council referred the matter to enforcement agents for collection. When the enforcement agents contacted Mr X he paid the full amount owed of £200.84. This included the costs charged by the enforcement agency.
12. Mr X complained to the Council about these added costs. He maintains that the Council is at fault for sending bills to an address it knew he did not live at.

Analysis

13. Mr X says the Council sent documents to the wrong address and so it reimburse the recovery costs it charged. I have carefully considered the actions of both Mr X and the Council in relation to this case. I am not persuaded there is fault by the Council.
14. Mr X told the Council he was responsible for council tax at the property from 1 November 2018. The online form completed by Mr X stated he was moving into the property as his main residence and that correspondence should be sent to him at that address. In his complaint to the Ombudsman, Mr X said he had been renting out the property since 1992 and the council had sent all correspondence since 2007 to his current address which is in a different London Borough.
15. These two positions seem to be contradictory but I do not consider I need to take a view on where Mr X lived from 1 November 2018. Mr X provided information in December 2018 and so I am satisfied it was appropriate for the Council to consider this accurate and act on it. This stated information should be sent to that address. Any previous instruction to send correspondence for that property to his address in Chingford would be superseded by the information provided on the online form.
16. The Council therefore sent the new council tax bill in March 2019 to the property. Mr X had not provided any new instruction and so there is no fault in this action. Mr X sold the property in April 2019 but did not notify the Council. He says he would only be liable for 12 days charge and so did not pay the billed instalment. As a result the Council started recovery action and used his last known address, which is the chargeable property. The action taken included issuing a court summons which resulted in the courts grating a liability order. These actions incurred extra costs. I find no fault in where the Council sent these documents and so I am satisfied these costs were properly charged to Mr X.
17. The Council contacted Mr X when post sent to the property was returned to it. Mr X had provided a mobile phone number and so the Council contacted him using that. During that call, the Council advised Mr X to send in details of the sale. Mr X did not send anything.
18. Mr X says the officer said she would send him details of the email address to use to send in the documents. Mr X says no email was sent and so he was unable to provide the information of the sale. The notes of the telephone call show the Council explained Mr X should send in details of the sale but make no mention of sending him an email address. As there is no recording of the call, I cannot say for certain what was said. However, Mr X was on notice that there was an outstanding charge and he knew the Council needed information to close down his account and send the final bill.
19. The Council received information from its leasehold department about the house sale in July and was able to close the account and send the final bill. The bill included the charge for 12 days in April, the 25% single occupancy discount for those 12 days and the court costs. The bill was sent to the property as this was the last known address.
20. The Council accepts it should have asked Mr X for his forwarding address during the phone conversation on 20 June. At this time the Council was aware Mr X was not living there and post had already been returned from that address. I consider it was fault not to request a forwarding address during the phone call and to send the final bill to an address where Mr X did not live. As a result, Mr X did not receive the bill and further costs, as a result of the matter passing to enforcement agents, were incurred.

Agreed action

21. As a result of the Council failing to ask for a forwarding address, Mr X did not receive the final bill and so was unable to pay it. This also resulted in the Council instructing enforcement agents and further costs were incurred. I consider the Council should reimburse the costs charged by the enforcement agents. It should do this within one month of my final decision.
22. In response to my draft decision, the Council said it had decided to also return the liability order costs of £40. I thank the Council for making this further payment.

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Final decision

23.  
24. I have completed my investigation with a finding of fault for the reasons explained in this statement. The Council has agreed to implement the actions I have recommended. These appropriately remedy any injustice caused by fault.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman