Summary: We will not investigate Mrs B’s complaint about a council tax refund. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council to justify pursuing the complaint further.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mrs B, complained that, after following the process the Council set out, the council tax refund she received was much less than she had been expecting.

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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 or continue with an investigation if we believe:

• it is unlikely we would find fault, or
• it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or
• there is another body better placed to consider this complaint. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I have considered the information Mrs B provided, her complaints to the Council, her comments on my draft decision, the Council’s responses to her complaints and the information the Council publishes on its website.

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What I found

4. Mrs B told us she bought a derelict property in 2016. She then obtained planning permission to renovate and convert it. Mrs B said she had been in touch with the Council throughout by telephone and email. She said she followed the Council’s advice at all times. That advice was to continue to pay council tax until the works were complete and the property was rented to tenants. Mrs B said the Council had told her the properties would then be valued for business rates and it would then refund the council tax paid. But, when a tenant moved in, the Council told her it would only refund a few months of council tax. So Mrs B did not receive the backdated refund she had been expecting. She said the Council should not have charged council tax on what was a commercial building.
5. After receiving a council tax bill, Mrs B’s husband had emailed the Council in March 2017. He said renovation work was due to start in a few months’ time and he would let the Council know when the business use became operational. There was no requirement on the Council’s council tax service to follow up this email. It was open to Mrs B and her husband to tell the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) about any changes which might affect the council tax banding. It is the role of the VOA to get the information it needs to reach a decision.
6. The VOA, which is a government agency, decides if a property should be rated, council tax banding and the date each property enters and leaves the rating list. It is then for each local authority to deal with the billing and recovery of council tax and business rates. If an individual or a business wants to challenge the VOA’s decisions, there is a right of appeal to the Valuation Tribunal. The Council has no power to alter the rating list. So if a property is included in the list the Council must bill for council tax on that basis until the VOA informs it of any changes.
7. It is not possible for us to establish safely exactly what advice the Council gave to Mrs B by telephone. This is likely to have happened over a year ago. The council tax part of the Council’s website includes information on how to appeal council tax banding decisions.
8. The Council asked the VOA to remove the property from the rating list with effect from April 2019. In its final response to this complaint the Council said the VOA’s decision in June 2019 was the property was not ready for deletion at that point. That meant council tax continued to be payable. The VOA did not move the property from the council tax to the non-domestic list until January 2020. That meant the council tax continued to be due until then so the refund the Council said it would pay was only for a short period starting in January 2020.
9. The main issue in Mrs B’s complaint is the Council did not offer her the refund she had been expecting. But there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council in this respect. It was not the Council’s responsibility to decide whether to charge council tax or business rates. Its role is to produce bills based on the rating list information it receives from the VOA. Until the VOA made the change, the Council was not at fault in telling Mrs B she should continue to pay the council tax.
10. When she replied to my draft decision Mrs B said she had not received the refund the Council had agreed. Due to a system error the Council failed to process the refund payment. In December 2020 the Council apologised to Mrs B and her husband for this. It told them it has now processed the payment.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council to justify pursuing the complaint further.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman