Summary: Mr X complains the Council failed to apply payments to his council tax account, causing him financial loss. We have discontinued our investigation as there is not enough evidence of fault and it would be reasonable for Mr X to ask the Council to review his evidence of payment.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council failed to apply payments to this council tax account resulting in him overpaying to avoid enforcement action.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact 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:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• it would be reasonable for the person to ask for a council review or appeal.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I have reviewed documents provided by Mr X and the Council.
4. I gave Mr X and the Council an opportunity to comment on a draft of this decision. I considered any comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

5. The Council gave Mr X a breakdown of council tax payments due and received from him. It had not received payments in April, May or July 2020 leaving an outstanding balance of £513.02.
6. Mr X said he paid each of the ten council tax instalments due. Therefore, the Council had misplaced three of his payments.
7. The Council asked Mr X to provide receipts for the missed payments so that it could trace these and allocate the payments to his account.
8. The Council says it has not yet received these.

Findings

9. The Council is awaiting details of payments made so that it can allocate these to Mr X’s account and resolve the matter. I consider it reasonable for Mr X to provide receipts or any other evidence of payments made to the Council for it to do so.
10. There is not enough evidence of fault at this stage for me to investigate. This is because there is not yet evidence the Council has lost any payments. Mr X first needs to evidence payments made to the Council and then allow it to trace these.

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Final decision

11. I have discontinued my investigation. This is because it is reasonable for Mr X to provide the Council with evidence for a review and there is not enough evidence of fault at this stage.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman