Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about Miss X’s council tax bill. This is because any fault by the Council did not directly cause Miss X a significant injustice.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains the Council acted wrongly by not sending her a council tax bill until August 2021 for an address she left in January 2021. She argues the Council should have billed her at the time. Miss X says this caused her distress and paying the bill now will cause financial difficulty.

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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
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and copy complaint correspondence from the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Miss X lived at the address in question (‘Address Z’) from 2019 to January 2021. She was a student from before she moved into Address Z until June 2020. In August 2021 the Council sent Miss X a council tax bill for her whole time at Address Z. It says it did not bill her sooner because she had not told it she was living there, or that she was a student. Miss X disputes that. She has supplied copies of emails from the Council acknowledging her emails saying she was living in a property (though the screenshots I have seen did not include the address) and that she had sent the Council evidence she was a full-time student. So she says:
1. The Council should never have billed her for the period she was a student and,
2. For June 2020 to January 2021, when Miss X was at Address Z after stopping studying, the Council should have billed her in the normal way at the time.
6. On point a), after receiving the bill, Miss X told the Council she had been a student for part of the period. The Council removed that period from the bill. Therefore, even if the Council had been at fault for including that period on the bill, this did not disadvantage Miss X in practical terms. I appreciate Miss X had to contact the Council and point out she had been a student for this period. However, I do not consider that in itself is significant enough for us to investigate.
7. On point b), the Council is seeking £567.19 council tax for this period. Even if in 2019 the Council had registered Miss X at Address Z (as Miss X says she asked it to), the Council would have had no duty to contact Miss X around June 2020 to remind her that she would soon stop being a student. Miss X had a legal duty to tell the Council of this change of circumstances. Had Miss X done that, it would have been an opportunity for the Council to amend its records for Address Z and bill her then. However, Miss X did not tell the Council when she stopped studying. It was not the Council’s fault it did not bill her then.
8. Miss X says she cannot afford to pay the bill now. The Council offered her the opportunity of paying over 12 months. I see no fault in that offer, as it relates to seven months’ council tax and Miss X had the benefit of that money in the meantime. If Miss X believes paying over 12 months will cause hardship, she can give the Council details and ask it to agree longer period.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because even if there was fault in the Council not noting Ms X lived at the address in 2019, that did not directly cause Ms X a significant injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman