Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with the complainant’s council tax account. This is because it is unlikely we could add anything to the Council’s response. If the complainant disagrees with how the Council has calculated her council tax liability she can appeal to the Valuation Office Agency.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will call Ms A, is unhappy with the way the Council has handled her council tax account. Ms A feels the Council has incorrectly calculated her liability and ignored overpayments she has made.
2. Ms A says she has been harassed for payments she does not owe for several years and believes the Council ought to compensate her for this.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation.(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
5. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone can appeal to a tribunal. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to appeal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by Ms A and the Council. I also considered our Assessment Code.
7. Ms A has responded to a draft decision and I considered her comments and further submissions before making this decision.

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My assessment

8. Ms A was liable to pay her council tax as billed. If instalments are missed, the remaining council tax for the year becomes immediately payable.
9. Ms A made payments towards her council tax bill but not the amount the Council had billed for. Due to the difference, the Council took action to recover the outstanding debt and added charges to Ms A’s account to cover this.
10. As Ms A continued making payments at less than the billed amounts, the Council continued to add collections costs and arrears to her account.
11. The Council investigated a complaint for Ms A earlier this year and decided to write off the outstanding debt on her account and cancel the summonses. The Council says these were applied correctly but offered to do this as a gesture of goodwill.
12. As the Council has already agreed to cancel the outstanding debt and summonses it is unlikely a full investigation would achieve anything more for Ms A.
13. Ms A is responsible for making the billed payments in full going forward to avoid further fees and recovery action. If Ms A still feels as though the Council is charging her incorrectly, it would be reasonable for her to use her right to appeal to the Valuation Office Agency (“VOA”). Ms A also could have appealed to the VOA if she disputed her liability for previous council tax years. The Ombudsman will not normally investigate complaints where someone has, or previously had, the right to appeal to a tribunal.

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Final decision

14. I have decided we should not investigate this complaint. This is because it is unlikely we could add to the Council’s response or provide a significantly different outcome. Ms A can appeal to the VOA if she disputes her liability for council tax.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman