Summary: Mrs X complained that the Council took enforcement action about council tax arrears she was not aware of. Mrs X said it caused stress and frustration. We do not find the Council at fault for taking enforcement action. We find the Council at fault for relying on out-of-date information. However, we do not find this caused Mrs X injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to here as Mrs X, complained that the Council took enforcement action about council tax arrears she was not aware of.
2. Mrs X said this caused stress, impacted on her mental health, and cost her time and trouble trying to resolve it. She also said she spent a long time, and a lot of money, on phone calls trying to speak to someone at the Council without success, which was frustrating.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in the decision making, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
5. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered the information and documents provided by Mrs X and the Council. I spoke to Mrs X about her complaint. Mrs X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on an earlier draft of this statement. I considered all comments and further information received before I reached a final decision.
7. I considered the relevant legislation and policies, set out below.

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What I found

What should have happened

8. The primary legislation for council tax is the Local Government Finance Act 1992. The main secondary legislation concerned with collection and recovery is The Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992 (“the Regulations”). Councils are responsible for collecting council tax.
9. If a council tax payment is missed, a council must issue a reminder notice. If the arrears are not paid, the balance for the full year then becomes due. A council can then complain to the magistrates court and issue a summons.
10. Councils can recover council tax debt in several different ways. They can make an attachment of earnings, meaning payments are automatically deducted from a person’s earnings. They can deduct payments from a person’s benefits. They can refer a debt to bailiffs.
11. The Council’s policy on collecting council tax says:

“Where a taxpayer or ratepayer leaves a property without notifying the Council of their forwarding address the Council will make every effort to trace their current whereabouts and to collect the amount outstanding.”

What happened

12. Mrs X owned a property and rented it to tenants.
13. In January 2018, the tenants moved out. The Council was informed that the tenants moved out. Later that month, the Council sent a council tax bill to the last known address it had on file for Mrs X. It also emailed the bill to the email address it had on file for her.
14. In March and June, the Council sent two reminder notices and a summons to the same postal address and email address it had for Mrs X.
15. At the end of June, the sale of Mrs X’s property was completed. Five days later, the Council sent a council tax bill to that property. In August, the Council sent notice of a liability order.
16. In September, the Council received the results of a Land Registry search it did on the property. This check, completed by Land Registry in early August, showed that Mrs X was still the owner of the property.
17. In November 2021, after a pause on enforcement action due to COVID-19, the Council passed Mrs X’s council tax debt to bailiffs for recovery.
18. In January 2022, the Council again passed Mrs X’s council tax debt to bailiffs for recovery.
19. In February, there was a further Land Registry check which showed Mrs X was not the owner of that property. Contact was made with Mrs X about the council tax debt.
20. In February, Mrs X complained the Council.
21. The Council spoke with Mrs X and put enforcement action on hold while she provided proof of the sale of the property. The Council withdrew the summons and asked bailiffs to return the debt to the Council.
22. The Council explained to Mrs X the action it had taken since 2018. It said the bills and reminders it sent to the last known postal address it had for Mrs X were returned as ‘undelivered’. It said that after its Land Registry check, it sent the bills and reminders to the property, and these were not returned to the Council.
23. The Council said, without any information from Mrs X, it was not possible to know where she lived to redirect the bills. It said there was no evidence that Mrs X contacted the Council in 2018 to give her up-to-date contact address or to tell the Council she had sold the property.
24. The Council considered it had administered Mrs X’s council tax account correctly, based on the information it had on file for her, given that Mrs X had not updated the Council with her up-to-date postal address or email address.
25. The Council said it assumed, in 2021, that Mrs X was still the owner of that property because of its 2018 Land Registry check. It said it had not received any information from Mrs X to say this was not the case.
26. The Council said it had removed all charges and costs from her account. It said all that remained to be paid was the council tax Mrs X was liable for from January to June 2018.
27. Mrs X then complained to the Ombudsman.

Analysis

28. Mrs X accepts that she is liable for the outstanding council tax from January to June 2018. She questions why the Council did not send council tax bills to her at the property in question between those dates. Mrs X says she called the Council in January 2018 about council tax liability. She says the Council told her it would send her the bill.
29. I find the Council sent the council tax bills and reminders to the last known postal address it had on file for Mrs X. The Council could not have known that Mrs X had not lived at that address for three years.
30. I also find the Council sent bills to the last known email address it had for Mrs X. It is unclear when Mrs X stopped using this email address.
31. Mrs X says she had a lot going on at the time she was selling the house. She accepts that she knew she was liable for this council tax, and that she did not chase the Council for the bill when she did not receive it. Mrs X also accepts that she did not tell the Council she no longer owned the property, and that she did not give the Council her up-to-date address.
32. I find the Council appropriately sent the bills and reminders to the last known addresses it had for Mrs X. I find the Council also sent bills to the property in question. It is unfortunate that the timing meant the Council sent the bill to the property less than one week after the sale of the house was completed.
33. The Council decided to take enforcement action when it could not contact Mrs X and the outstanding council tax was not paid. The Council was entitled to do this. Had Mrs X given the Council her up-to-date postal or email address, I find it is more than likely that Mrs X would have received the council tax bills.
34. The Council says it did not consider it necessary to do a second Land Registry search in 2021 before passing the debt to bailiffs because it had not received any information suggesting the property had been sold. It says it assumed Mrs X still owned the property because the letters sent to the property after June 2018 were not returned as undelivered. The Council says it assumed Mrs X still owned the property because, in the absence of any other information, it had no indication the property had been sold.
35. The Council’s policy says when a taxpayer does not notify the Council of their forwarding address, it will make “every effort to trace their current whereabouts”.
36. I find that in 2018, the Council took appropriate action to locate Mrs X. Again, it is unfortunate timing that the Land Registry was not updated more quickly after the sale of the property. This meant that even though Mrs X had sold the house in June 2018, the Land Registry check showed Mrs X as the owner in August 2018. This is not the Council’s fault.
37. However, when the Council re-started enforcement action against Mrs X in 2021, the Council made assumptions about Mrs X owning the property based on the Land Registry check from 2018. This was three-year-old information by that point.
38. I find this is not in line with the Council’s policy because the Council did not make every effort to trace Mrs X’s current whereabouts. Instead, the Council relied on old, out-of-date information. Therefore, I find the Council at fault.
39. However, I do not find this fault caused Mrs X injustice. The Council had already passed Mrs X’s debt to bailiffs for recovery action because she failed to pay the council tax she was liable for. I find that Mrs X contributed to her own injustice by failing to provide up-to-date contact information to the Council. This was her responsibility.
40. Further, I do not find Mrs X is caused any injustice by this fault because the Council has removed all costs and charges from her account. All that remains to be paid is the outstanding amount of council tax from January to June 2018 which Mrs X acknowledges she is liable for.
41. In response to a draft of this decision, the Council says when it re-started after the pause due to COVID-19, it had thousands of accounts needing enforcement action. It says it did not have the resources to carry out Land Registry checks on these accounts when there was no notice of any change of address.
42. I recognise that Mrs X did not tell the Council she had sold the house. Also, the Ombudsman recognises the significant impact COVID-19 had on councils’ resources. However, this is not a good reason for the Council to have used three-year-old information. Using old information is not in line with the Council’s policy. Also, councils should not make assumptions based on old information, regardless of resourcing issues.
43. The Council also says there was a backlog of properties that needed to be updated with the Land Registry. It says information obtained from the Land Registry therefore may not have been up to date, and could not have been relied on, even if the Council could have done a check for each of the accounts put back into recovery action in 2021.
44. I find the Council is speculating about information it could have obtained from the Land Registry if it had done a check in 2021. Mrs X sold the house in summer 2018, 18 months before COVID-19 lockdowns. I find it more than likely that the Land Registry would have updated its records within 18 months. I therefore do not find merit in the Council’s argument.

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Final decision

45. I have completed my investigation. I find the Council at fault for failing to act in line with its policy. But I do not find that this fault caused Mrs X injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman