Summary: Mr X complained the Council failed to issue the correct letters ahead of court action. Mr X says himself and his wife have been treated unfairly and were unable to attend their court date. We have found the Council at fault for failing to issue a letter which explained Mr X’s payment plan had been ended. This caused uncertainty for Mr X and his wife. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mr and Mrs X to remedy the injustice caused.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council:
• Failed to prove it sent correspondence ahead of court action relating to council tax arrears.
• Incorrectly charged him for historical council tax arrears.
• Issued separate summonses for himself and his wife, resulting in four witness summonses.
• Failed to respond to his correspondence relating to the issues.
2. Mr X says himself and his wife have been treated unfairly, and they were unable to attend their court date. Mr X would like the Council to notify the Court that the summons’ were not issued. Mr X would also like the Council to revoke the liability order, refund the £100 cost of the summons, provide valid proof to verify all outgoing postage and correctly calculate his council tax payments and refund any overpayments.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
4. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered evidence provided by Mr X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
6. Mr X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

Legal and administrative background

7. There are laws and regulations that control how councils collect council tax payments and how they can make people pay council tax they owe. (Council Tax [Administration and Enforcement] Regulations 1992)
8. The council tax bill for the year is due on 1 April. A council will usually collect this through monthly instalments. If a person who must pay council tax misses any instalment, the council will send them a reminder. If they still do not pay, or miss another payment, then they must pay all they owe (that is the full amount for the rest of the year).
9. Councils who want to recover unpaid council tax must ask the magistrate’s court for a liability order against people it thinks owe it the money. Once a council has a liability order it can take action to recover the money and any court costs owed.
10. For a document to be effective it must be served on a person. Summonses are served under the Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement Regulations 35(2)). All other documents are served under the Local Government Act 1972 (section 233). Both say the document may be served on a person by delivering it to them, leaving it at their proper address or sending it by post to their proper address. Proper address is taken to be the last known address. There is no need to use registered or recorded post.
11. Councils’ computer systems will allocate payments according to some simple rules. Usually, payments which are exactly equal to instalments or exact multiples of instalments will be allocated to the year’s liability they match. If someone has arrears and a current debt and pays a random sum, intending it for the current year’s instalments, the computer will have no idea it is intended for the current year and may allocate it to the arrears.
12. If two or more persons are jointly or severally liable for council tax, the council does not have to issue a demand in joint names. Council’s can issue a summons to each person liable for the account.

What happened

13. In January 2024 the Council wrote to Mr and Mrs X to tell them their council tax account was in arrears. The Council asked Mr and Mrs X to bring their account up to date or to make contact to discuss any reasons for non-payment. The Council told us it did not receive a response to this letter.
14. In response to our enquiries the Council provided evidence which showed Mr and Mrs X repeatedly made payments outside of the expected instalment amounts. This resulted in their account arrears for the years 2020/21 and 2023/24.
15. In March 2024 the Council issued Mr and Mrs X’s council tax bill for the year 2024/2025. This bill explained Mr and Mrs X’s council tax account had an outstanding balance of £2,092.98 from previous years which was not included in the instalment plan.
16. At the end of March 2024, the Council issued Mr and Mrs X with two final notices. One for the council tax period 2020/2021 and another for the council tax period 2023/2024. The notices told Mr and Mrs X they had lost the right to pay in instalments and the outstanding balance for both years was due by the end of March 2024.
17. At the beginning of April 2024, the Council agreed a payment arrangement which would allow Mr and Mrs X to pay the outstanding balance, and current years balance, in monthly instalments. The payment plan ran from April 2024 and set out payments due to be paid by the last day of each month. The first payment of £445.92 was due by the end of April 2024. This payment arrangement paused the recovery process for the previous years’ outstanding balance.
18. Council records show Mr X made a payment of £351 in April 2024. As this was not for the full amount agreed, the Council issued a payment reminder. The payment reminder asked Mr and Mrs X to bring their instalments up to date by 19 May 2024. The reminder advised Mr and Mrs X if they did not make this payment, their payment arrangement would be cancelled, and further action would be taken to collect the full outstanding balance. The reminder also told Mr and Mrs X if they paid the outstanding balance but missed a second payment then their instalment plan would be cancelled, and no further reminders would be issued before the full balance became due. Mr and Mrs X told us they did not receive this payment reminder.
19. Mr and Mrs X made two council tax payments in May 2024 which totalled £445.92. This payment bought Mr and Mrs X’s payment plan up to date for April but left an outstanding amount of £288.02, which was due on the last day of May. Mr and Mrs X failed to pay the remainder of the instalment due on the last day of May. This was the second missed instalment, so the Council cancelled Mr X’s payment arrangement.
20. The Council sent us evidence its system generated a default notice which told Mr and Mrs X they had missed their second payment instalment and the full outstanding amount of £4895 was due. However, there is no evidence this notice was sent to Mr and Mrs X.
21. At the beginning of June, the Council issued a default notice to Mr and Mrs X. The default notice told Mr and Mrs X that if the Council did not receive payment of £288.02 by 13 June 2024, they would lose their right to pay in instalments and the whole balance for the rest of the year would be due. Mr and Mrs X made a payment of £300 on 10 June.
22. At the end of June, Mr and Mrs X made three individual council tax payments which totalled £591.84.
23. At the beginning of July 2024, the Council issued a final notice to Mr and Mrs X. This notice told Mr and Mrs X they needed to pay the outstanding balance of £3232.02 by 11 July 2024. The notice explained if the council did not receive this payment the Council would issue a summons which would incur additional costs. I have seen no evidence Mr and Mrs X responded to this notice.
24. In the same week, the Council issued summonses to Mr and Mrs X for the outstanding balance of tax years 2020/21 and 2023/24. These summonses were issued as the payment agreement had been cancelled and the recovery action which had been paused in April 2024 was restarted. In their stage one complaint, Mr and Mrs X confirmed they were in receipt of these summonses.
25. At the end of July 2024, the Council issued summonses to Mr and Mrs X for the 2024-2025 outstanding balance.
26. In August 2024 the Council’s Director of Finance issued a stage two complaint response to Mr and Mrs X. The Council did not uphold Mr X’s complaint and the Council’s complaints procedure had now been completed. The letter advised Mr X to contact the council tax department to discuss the matter and agree a suitable alternative payment. Mr X was also told he could refer his complaint to the LGSO if he remained dissatisfied.
27. Mr X responded to the Council’s Director of Finance in three days later. Mr X told us he did not receive a response from the Director of Finance. The Council told us it did not receive this email.

My findings

28. I have seen no evidence to show the Council has incorrectly charged Mr and Mrs X for the outstanding balance on their council tax account.
29. The Council has provided evidence the following correspondence was issued with the correct contact details and home address of Mr and Mrs X:
• the arrangement reminder notice issued in May 2024.
• The Summonses issued in July 2024
• The letter detailing the liability order issued in August 2024.
30. The Council has provided evidence these letters were correctly issued and would have been delivered in the ordinary course of post. There is no fault in the Council’s issuing of these letters.
31. The Council has not provided evidence to show the default notice for Mr and Mrs X’s second missed instalment payment was issued to Mr and Mrs X. This is fault which means Mr and Mrs X were not told their payment plan had been cancelled. However, previous letters from the Council had made Mr and Mrs X aware of the Council’s process, and explained what would happen if they missed a second payment, so the injustice to Mr and Mrs X is limited.
32. The default notice issued to Mr and Mrs X in June 2024 provided inaccurate information regarding the status of Mr and Mrs X’s payment plan and council tax account. The default notice advised Mr and Mrs X they could make a payment of £288.02 to bring their account up to date and maintain their agreed payment plan, however the Council had already cancelled the payment plan and the full outstanding amount was £4895.00. This is fault which caused Mr and Mrs X uncertainty.
33. There is no fault in the Council issuing the final notice or court summonses in July 2024. Although Mr and Mrs X continued to make payments, these payments were sporadic and not in accordance with their agreed payment arrangement. This meant Mr and Mrs X missed two consecutive payments. The Council continued recovery action on the historic debt and issued summonses to Mr and Mrs X. The Council issued a final notice for the 2024/25 balance before issuing Mr and Mrs X with summonses.
34. The Council issued the summonses separately to Mr and Mrs X, to the correct address. Although the summonses were issued separately, only one cost was incurred for each debt. Therefore, there is no fault in the way the Council issued the summonses.
35. The Council provided thorough complaint responses in accordance with its complaints policy. The stage two complaint response issued by the Director of Finance in August 2024 explained the complaints process had been completed and advised Mr and Mrs X of the next steps they could take. Mr and Mrs X emailed the Director of Finance three days after the stage two response was issued and raised the same issues as had been dealt with during the complaints process. The Council did not respond to this email, however I do not consider the Council’s failure to respond to this email caused Mr and Mrs X injustice as the issues had been dealt with in the Council’s complaint process.

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Action

36. Within one month of the final decision the Council will apologise to Mr and Mrs X for the uncertainty caused by the faults identified. We publish guidance on remedies which sets out our expectations for how organisations should apologise effectively to remedy injustice. The Council should consider this guidance in making its apology.
37. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

38. I find fault causing injustice. The Council has agreed to remedy the injustice caused.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman