Leeds City Council (23 010 511)
Category : Benefits and tax > Council tax
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 03 Nov 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a council tax bill. This is because the injustice is not significant enough to warrant an investigation.
The complaint
- Mr X complained the Council wrongly sent him a Council tax bill and a reminder threatening legal action. The Council sent the reminder despite Mr X writing to say he did not own the properly in question. Mr X also complains the Council did not communicate by post as he asked. It also referred to him by his first and second names in correspondence. Mr X is seeking compensation.
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 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 continue an investigation if we decide any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement or further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mr X.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- The Council has accepted it sent the original bill in error and apologised. It has also explained it sent an automated reminder before it had considered Mr X’s response to the bill. The Council has explained to Mr X it has changed its processes. It will no longer send automated reminders where it has unread correspondence from the bill payer.
- The Council also apologised that it did not apply Mr X’s communication preferences.
- While I understand Mr X’s frustrations, the injustice is not significant enough to warrant us investigating. The Council has also put in place appropriate service improvements. If the Ombudsman were to investigate this matter, it is unlikely we would achieve anything more.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because any injustice caused is not significant enough to justify an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman