North Yorkshire Council (23 005 342)
Category : Benefits and tax > Council tax
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 28 Aug 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about Council tax billing because there is insufficient injustice to warrant investigation.
The complaint
- Mr X says that the Council delayed issuing a Council tax bill for his house and then failed to keep to an agreement to pay the outstanding sum.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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
- any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
- any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X says that he moved into his house in August 2022 and told the Council of this. He says that no bill was issued until October 2022 when he was asked to pay three month’s Council tax in one payment. He says that the Council verbally agreed to delay receipt of part of the sum over a few months but, later, the Council did not accept this agreement and he had to pay the full amount in one payment.
- The Council says it was told of Mr X’s occupation on 30 September and the bill was initially assigned Band A until the Valuation Office Agency changed the band to Band F on 28 October. It adds that no final agreement for late payment was confirmed by the Council.
- Mr X was able to make the outstanding payment in full and no costs were added to his bill. The Ombudsman would consider it reasonable for a person liable for Council tax to set aside payments for Council tax until a bill was issued. Whilst there is no evidence that the Council unreasonably delayed issuing the bill, I do not consider that any significant injustice (that would warrant investigation) is caused as a result of the chronology provided.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman