Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the way the Council is recovering council tax arrears. This is because the arrears have been considered in court and because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Mr X, complains about the way the Council is recovering council tax arrears. He says the Council is pursuing his late mother and chasing him for arrears that have been paid by a charity. Mr X wants compensation and for the Council to stop taking legal 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 an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
3. We cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided Mr X and the Council. This includes the complaint correspondence and additional information from Mr X. I also considered our Assessment Code and invited Mr X to comment on a draft of this decision.

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My assessment

5. Mr X lived with his mother, and was her carer, until her death in 2019. They were both liable for the council tax and Mr X received a carer’s discount. There were persistent council tax arrears, from 2009, for which the court granted charging orders.
6. In December 2021 a charity paid £1995 which paid the arrears for charging orders for 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21.
7. Mr X complained the Council had written to his late mother about the arrears. He said the Council was being aggressive and was pursuing him for arrears that had been paid by the charity.
8. The Council apologised because its solicitor had written to Mr X’s late mother even though Mr X had notified the Council of her death. The Council had updated its records, and awarded Mr X the single person discount, but it had failed to pass the information to its solicitor.
9. The Council explained the payment from the charity had cleared some of the arrears but Mr X still had arrears for other years, some of which are subject to a charging order. The Council asked him to set up a payment plan to prevent further enforcement action and said he needs to bring his current payments up to date. It invited Mr X to apply for council tax reduction (CTR) and said it needs to pursue arrears because council tax pays for council services.
10. I cannot investigate the arrears which are subject to a charging order because charging orders are issued by the court and we have no power to investigate any issue that has been the subject of legal action.
11. I will not investigate the other issues because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council. It is unfortunate the solicitor wrote to Mr X’s late mother but the Council apologised and this does not amount to fault requiring an investigation. In addition, the error does not affect the amount due. And, the Council has explained that while it received a payment from the charity this did not cover all the arrears. The Council asked Mr X to make a payment plan for the remaining arrears, keep to the plan he has set up, and invited him to apply for CTR. I appreciate Mr X may be finding it hard to pay his council tax but I have not seen anything to suggest we can or should start an investigation.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate this complaint because we cannot investigate any issue that has been considered in court and because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman