Summary: The Council was at fault for how it handled Mr X’s Council Tax account and for how it handled his complaint about this. This did not cause any injustice to Mr X.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about the way the Council handled his Council Tax account. Mr X said he received demands for Council Tax and Court summons which were unfounded and the Council failed to consider his own record of payments.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. 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

4. As part of this investigation I considered the information received from Mr X and the Council. I sent a draft of this decision to Mr X and the Council for comments.

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What I found

Council Tax

5. The Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992 cover both the way councils collect payments of council tax and the way councils can recover council tax debt. The Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 and associated regulations cover the way bailiffs may recover debts.
6. The council tax bill for the year is due on 1 April. A council will usually collect payment through monthly instalments. If any instalment is missed, the council will send the liable person a reminder. If a payment is still not made or a further payment missed, then the entire outstanding balance will be due (that is the full amount for the rest of the year).
7. To use the various powers available to it to recover unpaid council tax, a council must apply to the magistrates court for a liability order against those it believes are liable. Once a council has obtained a liability order it can take recovery action.
8. A liability order gives a council the legal power to take enforcement action to collect the money owed. This can include taking deductions from benefits, getting an attachment of earnings (this means deductions are taken directly from earnings by an employer and passed to the council) or using bailiffs. The council can decide which recovery method it wishes to use but it can only use one method for one liability order at one time.

What happened

9. In this section I have not referred to every piece of correspondence or communication between Mr X and the Council over the last few years. I have just summarised the key events.
10. When Mr X moved into the Council area, his daughter had set up the Council Tax account. She married and moved away. Mr X said he asked the Council to transfer the account into his name but it gave him a new Council Tax account.
11. In June 2021, the Council wrote to Mr X and told him he had Council Tax arrears of over £800. Mr X agreed a payment plan with the Council, paying £70 per month.
12. In July 2021, the Council contacted Mr X about Council Tax arrears of over £2,000. The Council agreed a payment plan of £130 per month to clear these arrears. It was not clear how the Council allocated these payments.
13. Mr X contacted the Council several times asking for explanations as to his Council Tax balance and outstanding arrears.
14. The Council sent Mr X a Court summons and obtained a liability order in November 2022 for unpaid Council Tax. The Council added these costs to Mr X’s Council Tax account.
15. In February 2023, Mr X wrote to the Council disputing his Council Tax debt. Mr X asked the Council to look at his record of Council Tax payments which he had kept and cross reference this with the payments it had received.
16. The Council responded to Mr X and asked him to send further details of payments he had made. Mr X said he did this but and while in discussions with the Council about his Council Tax arrears, it sent him a new Court summons and liability order in April 2023. The Council added the cost of this to Mr X’s Council Tax account.
17. In late April 2023, Mr X made a formal complaint to the Council about the way it handled his Council Tax account. Mr X was unhappy the Council had so far refused to consider his own payment records and was unhappy that he had been sent a further Court summons and liability order when in discussions with the Council.
18. The Council initially responded to Mr X and said it would not consider the matter as a complaint as it related to events which were older than 12 months. The Council said it would log the issue as a service request and provide Mr X with a response.
19. In May 2023, the Council provided its response. The Council said:
• It had reviewed the spreadsheet Mr X provided showing all his Council Tax payments since 2019 and had found three more payments Mr X made which were not on his spreadsheet.
• It had attached a statement of account setting out how much Council Tax Mr X had to pay for each financial year from April 2019. The Council said each payment on its statement was numbered and the number had been crossmatched to the payments on Mr X’s spreadsheet. The Council said the statement showed Mr X owed £651.65 in Council Tax.
• After it made the payment plans with Mr X in June and July 2021, it did not allocate these payments in the way Mr X thought they would be allocated. The Council said it acknowledged Mr X also contacted it several time with balance queries which were not fully explained to him. The Council said it thought Mr X would have continued to make the payments until the arrears were paid off had the Council communicated with him better.
• It had withdrawn the enforcement charges which were added to his Council Tax account in November 2022 and April 2023. The Council apologised for the inconvenience caused and asked Mr X to set up a payment plan to clear the outstanding Council Tax arrears.
20. Mr X remained dissatisfied and complained to the Ombudsman. Mr X said he repeatedly asked the Council to use his own records of payments as a starting point to work out his Council Tax.

Analysis

21. After the Council agreed payment plans with Mr X it did not allocate these to his accounts in the way he thought it would. The Council also did not properly explain to Mr X how his Council Tax arrears had been calculated and applied for Court action while he was in discussions with the Council. This was fault.
22. While the Council was at fault, I do not consider this has caused Mr X injustice. The Council recognised the above fault, which is welcomed, and considered Mr X’s record of payments alongside its statement of account for his Council Tax. The Council worked out what Mr X owed from his statement of account and withdrew the Court costs from his account which were incurred in November 2022 and April 2023. This is in line with what the Ombudsman would recommend and, on balance I am satisfied it remedies the injustice caused to Mr X.
23. The Council was also at fault for registering Mr X’s complaint as a service request and not a complaint. While the Council said it related to matters which happened more than 12 months ago, Mr X was still complaining about issues with his Council Tax arrears that were ongoing. The Council should have registered this as a formal complaint. I do not consider this caused injustice to Mr X, as the Council has looked into Mr X’s Council Tax arrears, considered his own record of payment, and worked out what is outstanding.

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Final decision

24. I have completed my investigation and found the Council was at fault but this has not caused injustice to Mr X, so no remedy is recommended.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman