Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about matters related to Ms X’s council tax. It is unlikely we would criticise the Council’s decision not to allow Ms X to pay on a different day of the month, or the Council’s decision to take recovery action. Other parts of the complaint have not completed the Council’s complaint procedure.

The complaint

1. Ms X complained about the Council’s handling of her council tax account, especially it only accepting telephone payments by the first day of the month when it allows direct debit payments on other days. She says this is inconvenient as she would prefer to pay by telephone on a different day, and it resulted in the Council taking recovery action, which incurred extra costs for her.

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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 there is another body better placed to consider this complaint. (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. The Council allows council taxpayers who pay by direct debit to choose between three payment days each month. People paying by other methods have to pay by the first day of each month. The Council has not agreed to take Ms X’s payment by telephone later than the first of the month. It says it seeks to encourage payment by direct debit and that direct debit is a more secure payment method.
6. I appreciate Ms X disagrees with the Council’s decision and finds it unpersuasive. However, it is a decision the Council is entitled to make, and the Council has given reasons. I do not see evidence of fault here.
7. Ms X is unhappy the Council took recovery action (getting a court order then passing the debt to enforcement agents), which increased the amount she owes. She wants those extra costs removed. The Council’s description of events suggests it took the required action when payments were not received on the due date: issuing reminders, then removing the right to pay instalments (which meant the rest of the year’s council tax was then due). The Council only started recovery action after that.
8. Ms X says she did not receive the reminders and summons. It is unlikely any investigation by us would be able to establish whether that was due to fault by the Council rather than a postal problem or some other cause. The Council’s responsibility was just to issue the documents, not to guarantee their receipt. As it is unlikely any investigation would find fault by the Council but for which the recovery action would have been avoided, I do not criticise the Council for adding the costs of recovery action to the debt.
9. Ms X suggests the Council breached data protection law by passing her details to enforcement agents. It is more appropriate for the Information Commissioner to rule on whether the law was breached. In terms of the Ombudsman’s role, if we investigated it is unlikely we would fault the Council for sharing information with enforcement agents who were acting on the Council’s behalf.

Other parts of the complaint to the Ombudsman

10. Ms X’s complaint to us included other points on which there is no evidence of a complaint to the Council. We do not normally consider complaints unless they have completed the Council’s complaint procedure.
11. One of those points was that Ms X says she has not ‘given my signed authority to pay this tax.’ Someone must pay council tax if the law says they must pay. The taxpayer does not have to agree. So we are unlikely to find fault here.
12. Ms X states she wants a breakdown of how her council tax is spent. Council tax is not a contract or payment for specific services. It is simply a tax to be paid in accordance with the law. So this point is irrelevant to the Council’s actions on Ms X’s council tax account. If Ms X wants more information about spending by the Council or the Greater London Authority (which receives some of the council tax), she can ask those bodies, citing the Freedom of Information Act if she wishes. However, that does not affect my decision on Ms X’s complaint.
13. Ms X’s complaint to us also complained about the Council’s charge for collecting garden waste. I have seen no evidence of a complaint on that point completing the Council’s complaint procedure, so I have not considered this at this stage. Nor does this point affect my decision on the complaint about council tax matters.

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Final decision

14. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because investigation is unlikely to find fault regarding the payment date and recovery action. Other points have not competed the Council’s complaint procedure and there are other reasons for not pursuing some of those points.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman