Tendring District Council (23 000 055)
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about Council tax payments because the matter has been remedied.
The complaint
- Ms X complains that the Council unreasonably sent her a Council tax bill for the previous four years.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we are satisfied with the actions an organisation has taken or proposes to take. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(7), as amended)
- The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone can appeal to a tribunal about the same matter. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to appeal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
- The Valuation Tribunal deals with appeals against decisions on council tax liability and council tax support or reduction.
- We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Ms X says that the Council sent her a Council tax bill in August 2022 which was backdated to 2018. She says that they had applied for Council tax support in 2019 but had not received a reply.
- The Council says that annual bills were issued every year and that no payment had been made since October 2020. The Council says that a hold was placed on enforcement action whilst a repayment plan was agreed. Ms X applied for Council tax support but was refused due to her savings exceeding the limit.
- Ms X was aware that she was liable for Council tax as she says she applied for support in 2019. The Ombudsman would expect a Council taxpayer to set money aside in the absence of a Council tax bill. Any dispute about liability for Council tax or a discount is a matter for the Valuation Tribunal. Further Ms X was aware that no bill had apparently been issued in 2020 and 2021 so any complaint about this is out of time as they could reasonably have been made to this office within 12 months.
- The Council’s agreement to suspend recovery and agree a payment plan is, in my view, a suitable remedy to the complaint.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman