Bedford Borough Council (22 010 835)
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the way the Council has handled Ms X’s council tax account. This is because the Council has recently taken action to remedy the complaint and achieve the outcome requested.
The complaint
- Ms X complains about the Council’s failure to offer her a payment plan to pay off her council tax debt. She says it unreasonably took her to court adding court costs. She would like the court costs to be refunded.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
- We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide we could not add to the Council’s investigation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Council’s response and our Assessment Code.
My assessment
- We checked with the Council for any responses to Ms X’s complaints. This is because we usually expect complainants to exhaust the Council’s complaints procedures.
- The Council responded by saying it had very recently sent another complaint response to Ms X. And it had taken the action requested by cancelling the courts costs, withdrawing the court order and setting up an instalment payment plan.
- We will not investigate. This is because Ms X has achieved the outcome requested and further investigation is unlikely to achieve anything more.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint as she has achieved the outcome requested. And further investigation is unlikely to achieve anything more.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman