Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision not to pay interest on a council tax refund paid to Mr and Mrs X. This is because the tests in our Assessment Code are not met.

The complaint

1. Mr and Mrs X complain the Council has refused to pay them interest on a council tax refund they recently received following the re-banding of their property a number of years ago after they had left the property in question.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainants, including the Council’s response to their complaint.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mr and Mrs X recently obtained a council tax refund for a property they had lived in previously. This came about because a subsequent owner of the property applied for the property to be re-banded by the Valuation Agency and the application resulted in all previous council tax accounts for the property being adjusted to the lower level therefore creating a credit on earlier accounts.
6. The complainants asked the Council to pay interest on the refunded council tax but it refused. It explained there was no legal provision for it to do so. It said it had written to the last address it had for them in 2013 to advise them of the credit but that it heard nothing further. It explained it would not use its limited resources to try further to track down people in the same position as the complainants and repay a credit.
7. While Mr and Mrs X may be disappointed with the Council’s decision not to pay interest on the refund they received, there are insufficient grounds to warrant an investigation by the Ombudsman. The Council is not obliged to pay interest in such circumstances and an investigation by the Ombudsman would not lead to a recommendation for such an outcome.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mr and Mrs X’s complaint because the tests in our Assessment Code are not met.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman