Summary: We will not investigate this council tax complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council and insufficient evidence of injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Mr X, says the Council failed to register him for council tax and then asked him to pay £511 a month to pay the arrears. He says the Council wrongly sent a bill to his mother which led him to think the issue was resolved.

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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, or
• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, 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 Mr X and the Council. I considered our Assessment Code and invited Mr X to comment on a draft of this decision.

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My assessment

4. Mr X had been living with his mother. She owned the property, was liable for the council tax as the owner, and received council tax support (CTS). People who claim CTS must report all changes in their circumstances which affect their entitlement.
5. In 2018 Mr X bought the property from his mother. Mr X says he registered for council tax in March. The Council has no record of Mr X providing this information and it did not receive any information from Mr X’s mother. The Council continued to send annual council tax bills to Mr X’s mother.
6. In December 2020 Mr X told the Council his mother had moved. The Council then found out Mr X had owned the property since 2018 and was liable for the council tax from 2018.
7. The Council made Mr X liable from 2018. Unfortunately it sent the amended bills to Mr X’s mother. This made Mr X think the problem had been resolved. The Council corrected the error in July and reissued the bill to Mr X. It asked him to pay £511 a month to clear the arrears. Mr X said that was unaffordable. In response the Council put a hold on recovery for a month so Mr X could discuss repayment terms. The Council says Mr X did not discuss repayment so it has now offered £90 a month plus payment of the current council tax.
8. I will not investigate this complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council. The Council has no record of Mr X registering for council tax in 2018 and it did not receive any information from his mother. In addition, Mr X did not contact the Council to chase up a council tax bill, despite the fact that the bills continued to list his mother as the tax payer and he would have been aware he was not paying any council tax.
9. I also will not start an investigation because there is insufficient evidence of injustice. The Council wrongly made Mr X’s mother liable after it knew Mr X was the owner. However, while I appreciate this made Mr X think the problem had been resolved, there is insufficient evidence of injustice to require an investigation. This is because Mr X was aware he was responsible for the council tax and the error was corrected.
10. The Council asked Mr X to pay £511 which is a high amount to expect anyone to pay. But, it then applied a hold to give Mr X time to discuss a payment plan. It did not hear from him so it has offered payment at a lower amount. This, again, means there is not enough injustice to require an investigation.

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Final decision

11. I will not investigate this complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault and injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman