Summary: We will not investigate this council tax complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains about the way the Council managed a council tax account after a tenant left and he sold the property.

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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 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 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))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council. This includes the complaint correspondence. I also considered our Assessment Code.

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My assessment

4. Mr X rented a property to a tenant. The tenant was liable for the council tax while she had a tenancy. The tenant moved out and, a couple of months later, Mr X sold the property.
5. The Council has made Mr X liable for the council tax from when the tenancy ended until he sold the property. The council tax is now correct but, before it reached this position, the Council issued some erroneous bills. This was not entirely due to Council error but sometimes due to it receiving new information. It did, however, apologise because it overlooked the information Mr X had provided about the sale of the property and it had to issue another revised bill to correct this. It also apologised because it had, at times, delayed responding to Mr X.
6. The Council could have handled some aspects of the change in council tax liability better and I appreciate Mr X may have felt frustrated by the series of bills that had to be adjusted. However, the bill is now correct and there is insufficient evidence of fault to warrant an investigation.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate this complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman