Summary: Mr B complained about the Councils decision not to backdate the single person discount on his council tax account. He also complained about its complaint handling. He said this caused him financial hardship and stress. We did not find fault with the Council.

The complaint

1. Mr B complained about the Council’s decision not to backdate the single person discount on his council tax account.
2. He also complained the Council:
• Was dishonest about its communication with him.
• Failed to respond to emails and website contact.
• Failed to return documents he sent it.
• Gave inconsistent information about the way it applied the empty property charge to his account.
3. Mr B said this caused him financial hardship and significant stress. He also said he suffered financial loss because the Council failed to return some of his documents.

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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. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
6. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
7. 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)
8. The Valuation Tribunal deals with appeals against decisions on council tax liability and council tax support or reduction.
9. 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

10. I considered the information Mr B provided with his complaint. I made enquiries with the Council and considered its response with the relevant law and guidance.
11. Mr B and the Council had the opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I carefully considered all the comments I received before making my final decision.

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What I found

Law and guidance

12. The primary legislation for council tax is the Local Government Finance Act 1992 (LGFA 1992). The main secondary legislation concerned with collection and recovery is The Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992.
13. Council’s have a duty to charge council tax in accordance with legislation and to determine who is liable for the charge and the level of the charge for a property.
14. The amount of council tax payable depends on:
• The valuation band of the dwelling.
• How much the local council charges for that band.
• Whether there are any discounts or exemptions that can be applied.
15. Councils may apply a discount if the property is empty, if only one adult lives there, or if one or more of the people in the home should be ignored for special reasons.
16. A person charged council tax can appeal to the valuation tribunal if they think:
• the property is exempt from council tax;
• the property is in the wrong valuation band;
• they should not be liable for council tax;
• the Council should give them a discount; or
• the Council should have given them a reduction under the rules of the local council tax reduction scheme or they disagree with the reduction the Council has given.
17. If someone applies for council tax reduction or a discount, a council must advise the claimant of its decision in writing. Appeals against decisions about council tax reductions must be heard by the valuation tribunal. Before a claimant can appeal to the valuation tribunal, they must ask the council to look again at its decision.
18. We cannot normally investigate complaints about councils not awarding council tax reductions, discounts or exemptions because the complaints should be heard at the valuation tribunal. However, we can look at councils’ actions and what happened surrounding the complaint.
19. Section 6 of the Local Government Finance Act (LGFA) 1992 provides a list of people liable to pay council charge for a property. Where a property is unoccupied the liable person will be the owner of the dwelling.

What happened

20. In November 2018 Mr B told the Council he would no longer be living at property X.
21. The Council said Mr B also told the benefits team he no longer lived at property X in March 2019.
22. Mr B was still the owner of property X. In February 2020 the Council sent Mr B a premium charge letter for empty properties.
23. In April 2020 Mr B complained to the Council about the empty property charge letter.
24. In May 2020 the Council provided its stage one response. It said he should provide documentary evidence to support his claim he lived at property X. It did not uphold his complaint.
25. Mr B was unhappy with the response and asked for his complaint to be considered at stage two. He said the Council:
• Was dishonest about the attempts it said it made to call him.
• Failed to respond to his email and web form contacts.
• Sent misleading information about his single person discount and empty property charge.
26. The Council provided its stage two response in May 2020. It said:
• It apologised for wrongly advising it had a called Mr B.
• Some of the complaint points were from 2017 and 2018. The points were previously addressed as part of another complaint and the Council had nothing further to add.
• It apologised for any confusion about two letters it sent to Mr B in May 2020. Mr B provided the information requested but the second letter was sent before the Council was aware.
• It would reconsider Mr B’s application for single person discount when he provided the information it requested.
27. In July 2020 the Council awarded the single person discount backdated to 18 March 2020. It told Mr B he should provide additional evidence if he wanted it to consider awarding the single person discount any further back.
28. Mr B was unhappy with the Councils response and complained to the Ombudsman.

My findings

29. I have not considered the Council’s decision not to award the discount. My reason is given below in paragraph 35.
30. I considered the Council’s actions and what happened with Mr B’s complaint to the Council.
31. I did not find fault with the Council for the way it responded to Mr B’s complaint about his council tax. There was a lot of correspondence from Mr B to the Council. It responded to most of his emails and calls.
32. There were times when there was some delay and some of the information was not accurate. But the Council apologised and provided clarification. I do not think Mr B suffered a significant injustice and the outcome would not have been any different.
33. There was no evidence Mr B provided original documents to the Council in 2020. The Council says it did not return the documents because they were copies. The letter Mr B sent with the documents supports this. I do not find fault with the Council in relation to the documents form 2020.

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Final decision

34. I do not find fault with the Council.

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Parts of the complaint that I did not investigate

35. I did not investigate parts of Mr B’s complaint about the Council’s communication with him and failing to return some documents. These are out of time and I found no good reason to exercise discretion to investigate these matters.
36. I have not investigated the Councils decision not to award single person discount for the period 18 November 2018 to 17 March 2020. Mr B had a right of appeal to the valuation tribunal about this decision.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman