Summary: We will not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint about payments on a council tax account. This complaint was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. There is no evidence to suggest that Mr X could not have complained to us sooner.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained about the Council cancelling the direct debit arrangement on her council tax account when her husband died in 2018. She says she was unaware of arrears accumulating on her account until 2022. As a result, she says that she has had to make up the payments which were not collected over time and this has caused some hardship. She has also received letters and a summons about court action due to the arrears.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended).

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council’s response.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mrs X says she was unaware that the Council had ended the direct debit arrangement for the council account which was in her husband’s name until he died in 2018. The Council says the direct debit was automatically cancelled when it was notified of his passing. An exemption was placed on the account for the probate period. The Council says it wrote to the address in 2019 and 2020 several times to determine if probate had been granted.
6. Mrs X complained to the Council in early 2022 in response to one of its letters, complaining about the ending of the direct debit. She says she received no reply. The Council ended the complaint in March 2023 and gave her a payment plan to address the arrears which had built up over time.
7. We will not investigate this complaint which concerns matters the complainant was aware of more than 12 months before they complained to us. Mrs X was aware of the matter in early 2022 and must have been aware that payments were not being withdrawn from the bank account before this time.
8. The time for receiving complaints is from when someone became aware of the matter they wish to complain about, not when they complained to the Council or it issued its final response. We would expect someone to complain to us within a year, even if they were dissatisfied with the time the complaints procedure was taking.

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Final decision

9. We will not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint about payments on a council tax account. This complaint was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. There is no evidence to suggest that Mr X could not have complained to us sooner.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman