London Borough of Croydon (23 012 607)
Category : Benefits and tax > Council tax
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 14 Dec 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about council tax enforcement fees. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council.
The complaint
- Mr X complains the Council failed to send his council tax bills and post by email. He says he was not aware of the escalation of the matter to the courts or the increasing costs for court and enforcement agent fees.
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 there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X says he told the Council tax team that he had moved into emergency accommodation in an hotel. He says he was told that correspondence would be sent by email. His post was returned to sender by the new occupants of his former home.
- However, the Council says Mr X provided the hotel address as a forwarding address. It says the council tax bill was returned. Following its procedure, the hotel forwarding address was removed, and it resumed sending correspondence to the last confirmed address, Mr X’s former home. The Council also confirms Mr X had registered for paperless billing and was able to see his council tax account online.
- The Council confirms it sent Mr X his final council tax bill in February to the hotel, a week after he advised he had moved into the hotel. It then issued a reminder in March. As it did not receive a payment, in April it issued a summons for a virtual court hearing and court costs were added to the bill.
- As no payment was received a court hearing was held in May and a Liability Order was issued adding further court costs.
- The Council passed the case to its enforcement agents, and enforcement costs were added to the bill.
- Mr X says he did not receive any post and wants the Council to reduce the bill back to the original final council tax demand.
- The Council confirms it sent the council tax correspondence to the forwarding address provided by Mr X. And when this was returned it resumed sending the post to the last registered. Also, Mr X could view his account online.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because from the information I have seen there is no evidence that the Council did not send bills and post to the addressed identified on its records. In the absence of administrative fault, the Ombudsman cannot criticise the Council’s actions.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman