Summary: Mr X complained the Council did not tell the courts and enforcement agents, also known as bailiffs, of his agreed reasonable adjustments when it took action against him regarding council tax. I do not find the Council’s actions caused Mr X significant injustice. However, I find the Council at fault for not telling the enforcement agents of the reasonable adjustments and recommend service improvements to prevent possible future injustice.

The complaint

1. Mr X is disabled and the Council agreed reasonable adjustments to contact him by email and telephone. This is because he cannot understand information when it is posted to him. He complains about the Council’s actions when he owed council tax. In particular he complains the Council:

• Did not tell the court about his disabilities so it issued the summons by post, not by email.
• Did not tell enforcement agents, also known as bailiffs, about his disabilities, so they left documents he could not read when they visited him.

2. Mr X would like the Council to remove the court judgment, call off the enforcement agents, agree a payment plan with him and apologise.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused significant injustice, or that could cause injustice to others in the future we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. We cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended)
5. 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

6. I considered evidence provided by Mr X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
7. 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

Equality Act and Reasonable Adjustments

8. The Equality Act 2010 provides a legal framework to protect the rights of individuals and advance equality of opportunity for all. It offers protection, in employment, education, the provision of goods and services, housing, transport and the carrying out of public functions.
9. The reasonable adjustment duty is set out in the Equality Act 2010 and applies to any body which carries out a public function. It aims to make sure that a disabled person can use a service as close as it is reasonably possible to get to the standard usually offered to non-disabled people.
10. Service providers are under a positive and proactive duty to take steps to remove or prevent obstacles to accessing their service. If the adjustments are reasonable, they must make them.
11. We cannot decide if an organisation has breached the Equality Act as this can only be done by the courts. But we can make decisions about whether or not an organisation has properly taken account of an individual’s rights in its treatment of them.
12. The duty is ‘anticipatory’. This means service providers cannot wait until a disabled person wants to use their services, but must think in advance about what disabled people with a range of impairments might reasonably need.

Council Tax

13. 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)
14. Laws and regulations also control how enforcement agents can collect money owed to the council. (The Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007)
15. 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 has to 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).
16. Councils who want to recover unpaid council tax have to ask the magistrates’ 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.
17. Most often councils take what is owed directly from the person’s benefits, from their wages (called getting an attachment of earnings order) or using enforcement agents. The council can decide how to recover what is owed but it can only use one method for one liability order at one time.
18. If a council has a liability order from the magistrates’ court it can ask an enforcement agent to visit a person’s property and take goods worth up to the amount of council tax debt and costs.
19. The law sets out a clear procedure for how enforcement agents can do this. This is called “taking control of goods”. (Schedule 12 of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007)
20. Councils must make sure enforcement agents provide clear and accurate information about how much someone must pay. This must include a breakdown of costs, explaining how much the enforcement agent has charged for what they have done.

What happened

21. Mr X is disabled. He cannot read letters that are delivered by post. The Council previously agreed to provide him information either by telephone call or email which his software can read out to him. The Council sends Mr X his council tax bills by email.
22. The Council said Mr X missed council tax payments in 2023 so it sent him a summons to the magistrates’ court. It sent the summons through the post, not by email.
23. In September 2023 Mr X telephoned the Council before the date of the hearing and said he had received the summons. He said he found the information confusing. The Council spoke to him and adjourned the court hearing until a date in October 2023 to allow him time to get help.
24. In early October, before the date of the adjourned hearing, Mr X emailed the Council and asked about a payment arrangement. The Council replied and asked Mr X to telephone it to discuss a payment plan. The Council said a telephone conversation was required to discuss the details. It has no record of Mr X telephoning it, and a payment plan was not arranged.
25. The adjourned court hearing went ahead in October. The evidence indicates Mr X did not attend. The Council appointed enforcement agents to recover the money the court said Mr X owed. The Council did not tell the enforcement agents that it had agreed to provide Mr X information by email or telephone call.
26. Enforcement agents then visited Mr X’s home. Mr X was not at home so an enforcement agent telephoned him to explain the situation.
27. In September 2024 Mr X complained to the Council. He complained the Council had not told the court or the enforcement agents he had a disability. Mr X believed if the Council had told the court of his requirements it would have served the summons by email and provided him an opportunity to attend court. He said he felt the Council had not acted in line with the Equality Act.
28. The Council replied to Mr X’s complaints. It said the law did not allow that type of court summons to be issued by email, it had to be sent by post. It said it had adjourned the court hearing date and asked Mr X to telephone it to arrange a payment plan, but he had not done so. The Council advised Mr X to contact the enforcement agents to discuss the outstanding balances and make a suitable payment arrangement. It provided Mr X the contact details including telephone number, text phone number, email, and webform.

Analysis

The service of the court summons by post

29. The Council is right that The Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992 prevented it from sending the court summons to Mr X electronically. For this reason I do not find the Council at fault for serving the summons by post.
30. I acknowledge that Mr X is likely to have experienced some worry at receiving the summons by post. However, he became aware of the court hearing date before it happened. He discussed the matter with the Council on the telephone and by email in line with the agreed reasonable adjustments. The Council adjourned the hearing to allow Mr X to prepare. It also asked him to telephone it to discuss a payment plan. For these reasons I do not find the Council at fault for the way it communicated with Mr X before the hearing.
31. I cannot investigate the court hearing itself, for the reason in paragraph 4.

The Council’s failure to tell the enforcement agents of Mr X’s requirements

32. I find the Council did not properly take account of Mr X’s rights when it did not tell the enforcement agents of his agreed reasonable adjustments, which is fault.
33. However, the enforcement agents first contacted Mr X by telephone which was in line with the agreed adjustments. The enforcement agents are also contactable by email and other electronic methods. I have seen no evidence Mr X has been unable to get clear and accurate information from the enforcement agents by telephone or by email. For these reasons I find the Council’s fault did not cause Mr X significant injustice.
34. I acknowledge Mr X wants the Council to call off the enforcement agents and arrange payments directly. However, the enforcement agents are best placed to know what stage the debt is at, what their costs are, arrange a payment plan, and take any action if it is broken. For these reasons I do not find the Council at fault for asking Mr X to contact the enforcement agents to arrange payment.
35. Despite not finding significant injustice in this case, I recommend the Council makes service improvements to prevent injustice being caused to others in the future by similar fault. The Council should implement a procedure that ensures any agreed reasonable adjustments are provided to enforcement agents.

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Action

36. Within six weeks, the Council will implement a process that ensures any agreed reasonable adjustments are provided to enforcement agents it uses.
37. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

38. I have completed my investigation and uphold an element of Mr X’s complaint. I find fault, however it did not cause Mr X injustice. The Council has agreed an action to prevent future injustice by the fault.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman