Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the way the Council has recovered council tax arrears. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Ms X, says the Council instructed bailiffs for council tax even though it did not send the bills to the correct address. Ms X says the bailiffs have not allowed her to make a payment plan. Ms X wants the Council to cancel the liability order and fees, apologise and pay £500 compensation.

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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 an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Ms X and the Council. I also considered our Assessment Code and invited Ms X to comment on a draft of this decision.

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My assessment

4. Ms X bought a property but she does not live in it. The previous owner told council tax that Ms X was the new owner. Ms X did not tell council tax she was the owner. The Council sent a council tax bill to the property for payment by Ms X. Ms X did not pay, or respond to reminders, so the Council obtained a liability order from the court. It then asked bailiffs to collect the debt. The Council did not know the property was empty until July when Ms X got in touch.
5. Ms X complained the Council did not send the bills to the correct address. She said the Council had her address because she had registered to vote. Ms X said she would pay the council tax but not the charges.
6. In response the Council said that council tax cannot get information from electoral services. It said Ms X should have registered for council tax for the new property as soon as she bought it and told the Council where she wanted the bills sent. The Council said it had no other information so could only send the bill to the property. The Council said it had followed the correct process, and charged fees, because Ms X had not paid any council tax since buying the property. The Council asked Ms X to make a payment plan with the bailiffs.
7. Ms X has now paid some of the council tax and has made a payment plan with the bailiffs.
8. I will not investigate this complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council. The Council had no other address for Ms X so it had to send the bills to the property and it did not know Ms X was not receiving them. And, because Ms X did not pay, the Council followed the correct process in obtaining a liability order and involving bailiffs. If Ms X had registered for council tax as soon as she bought the property she could have specified the correspondence address she wanted the Council to use. In addition, Ms X has been able to make a payment plan and the charges have been correctly incurred.

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Final decision

9. I will not investigate this complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman