Summary: Mr X complained the Council wrongly pursued him for council tax debt. He also complained about the Council’s decision to take legal action against him and the process it followed. We found the Council at fault for misleading wording on its website which caused Mr X avoidable distress. The Council has agreed to make a payment to Mr X to recognise his distress and make changes to improve its service. We cannot investigate the other parts of this complaint because the issues Mr X complained about have been, or reasonably could have been, discussed in court.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council’s website had misleading information about how to update his address with the Council’s council tax department. He said this meant he believed the council tax department was aware he had moved house, however it was not, and so the Council wrongly pursued Mr X for council tax.
2. Mr X also complained about the Council’s actions before and after issuing him with a summons. He said the Council did not try and contact him before issuing the summons and he said it was wrong to take legal action against him.
3. Mr X said the Council’s actions have caused him avoidable distress and hardship.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
5. We cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action or what happened during court proceedings. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended)
6. The courts have said that where someone has sought a remedy by way of proceedings in any court of law, we cannot investigate. This is the case even if the appeal did not or could not provide a complete remedy for all the injustice claimed. (R v The Commissioner for Local Administration ex parte PH (1999) EHCA Civ 916)
7. 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)
8. 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(1), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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What I found

Relevant law and policy

11. 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)
12. A council who wants to recover unpaid council tax have to 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.
13. If two or more persons are jointly and severally liable the council does not have to issue a council tax demand in joint names. But it must at some point issue a demand or a joint taxpayers notice with the other name(s) on if it wishes to recover from them. (Reg 28 Council Tax [Administration and Enforcement] Regulations 1992)

What happened

14. In December 2023 Mr X moved out of his property, into a new council’s area. His flatmate continued to live in the property, which I will call Property A.
15. Mr X said he phoned the Council to tell it he had moved. He said it told him to use an online form on its website to change his address and directed him to the relevant webpage where he could find the form. Mr X said he used the form on the Council’s website to update his address.
16. The Council says it received three late council tax payments for Property A in 2024, and so it sent a final reminder in September 2024 to pay the council tax in full.
17. The Council said nobody paid the outstanding council tax after it sent the final reminder, so it decided to issue separate summons for Mr X and his previous flatmate in October 2024. It sent these to Property A, as it believed Mr X still lived there.
18. In November 2024 Mr X’s old flatmate gave Mr X any letters addressed to him that were posted to property A after he moved out. At this point, Mr X read the summons from the Council, advising him it was seeking a liability order against him for unpaid council tax. The court hearing for the liability order was in less than one week.
19. Mr X instructed a solicitor. The solicitor and Mr X contacted the Council to try and resolve things before the hearing.
20. The Council told Mr X it did not have any record of him telling it he had moved house. Mr X said he updated his address using the Council’s website. He said he used the link to update his details on the electoral roll and he thought, because of the wording on the Council’s website, this would also tell the council tax department he had moved.
21. The hearing still went ahead. Mr X and the Council attended the hearing. After the hearing, the Council agreed to withdraw the summons.
22. Mr X then complained to the Council. Although he accepted the Council had withdrawn the summons and so he did not have to pay any of the council tax debt, he still wanted the Council to pay his travel and legal costs for court. He said the wording on the Council’s website was misleading and it was wrong to pursue him for the council tax debt in the first place, and so it should pay the costs he incurred by attending court and seeking legal advice.
23. The Council replied to Mr X and said it did not uphold his complaint. It said it had no record Mr X had tried to inform it he had moved in December 2023 and disagreed the wording on its website was misleading. Further, it told him it sent council tax letters with Mr X’s name on to Property A, but his previous flatmate had not told the Council that Mr X no longer lived there.
24. The Council told Mr X it would not pay his legal costs because it was his choice to instruct a solicitor.
25. Mr X then complained to us about the Council wrongly pursuing the money from him and refusing to refund his legal costs. He said it had not sent him any letters before sending the final summons, had not tried to contact him, and it was wrong to pursue him for the council tax in the first place because he did not owe it.
26. In response to our enquiries, the Council told us it did not know Mr X had moved house until November 2024, when he contacted it to discuss the summons letter. It also told us it could not readily provide all the letters it said it sent to Mr X about his council tax account, although it did manage to do so during the course of our investigation.

Analysis

The Council’s website

27. The Council has a webpage titled “Council Tax and moving in or out of Newham”, which explains what residents need to do to update their address when they move out of the Council’s area. Under the subheading “Electoral register”, it says “You can use the government's register to vote service to tell us that your address has changed”.
28. I agree this wording could be misleading and suggests that residents can use the register to vote service to inform the Council’s council tax department they have moved, particularly as it is situated on the webpage about council tax address changes. Using the word “us” implies it is referring to the Council as a whole, and not only a specific department in the Council. There is no wording which clearly states using the government’s register to vote service will not also update a resident’s address with the Council’s council tax department.
29. Mr X believed he had updated his address for council tax when he used the government’s register to vote link on the Council’s website. This caused him injustice because it resulted in the avoidable stress of him receiving a council tax summons because the Council thought he still lived at Property A. I am satisfied that Mr X would likely have taken extra steps to tell the council tax department of his change of address if he believed the form he filled in would not do this.

Bills and reminders

30. Mr X complains the Council did not follow process before issuing him with a summons. He says it did not send him letters or reminders about his council tax. Although the law referred to in paragraph five prevents us from considering the Council’s decision to issue a summons, we can still look at the administrative process leading up to the Council’s decision to start legal proceedings.
31. In response to our enquiries, the Council sent us a joint council tax bill addressed to Mr X and his previous flatmate to Property A in March 2024. It also sent us a final reminder addressed to Mr X and his previous flatmate it sent in September 2024.
32. The laws allow for councils to issue bills and reminders in joint names and therefore there is no fault by the Council in not sending Mr X a bill or final reminder in solely his name.
33. Mr X complains the Council did not try to contact him through different methods or find out his new address. As I have seen evidence the Council sent a joint bill and final reminder which named Mr X to Property A, but Mr X’s previous flatmate did not alert him or the Council to this error, I am satisfied the Council believed Mr X was still living at the property. Therefore, there would be no reason for the Council to try and contact Mr X through a different method and so there is no fault by the Council on this point.
34. In any event, the Council has now withdrawn the summons and Mr X is no longer responsible for paying the council tax for Property A. Therefore, there is nothing further to achieve on this point.

Record keeping

35. The Council could not find a copy of the final reminder it sent in September 2024 by the deadline we gave it to respond to our enquiries. It told us it was reviewing why it could not easily find all the information we asked for.
36. The Council managed to find a copy of this letter and send it to us after the deadline to respond.
37. Failure to keep accurate records and ensure important letters, such as final reminders, are easily found is fault by the Council. As suggested in our guidance note Principles of Good Administrative Practice keeping proper and appropriate records ensures councils are open and accountable.
38. The Council’s fault caused injustice to Mr X as we were unable to confirm the Council sent him a final reminder until later in our investigation, causing prolonged uncertainty for Mr X.

Conduct during proceedings

39. Mr X complained about the Council’s conduct during the legal proceedings. He said it wrongly had told him not to attend the hearing. He also said it had continued with the hearing, even though Mr X’s previous flatmate had already paid the outstanding council tax bill in full.
40. For the reasons highlighted in paragraph five, we cannot investigate the Council’s conduct during the legal proceedings and therefore we cannot investigate this part of Mr X’s complaint.

Legal costs

41. As stated in paragraph six, we cannot consider complaints where someone has sought a remedy in a court of law, even if the appeal did not remedy all of their injustice claimed.
42. In his grounds of response to the summons, Mr X’s solicitor asked the court to order the Council to pay Mr X his legal costs. Therefore, we cannot consider this part of Mr X’s complaint, as he has already asked the courts to remedy this.

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Action

43. Within one month of our decision the Council should:
1. apologise to Mr X for the injustice caused to him by the failings identified during this investigation. This apology should be in accordance with our guidance for making an effective apology; and
2. pay Mr X £200 to acknowledge the avoidable stress and uncertainty caused to him by the misleading wording on its website and its poor record keeping.
44. Within three months of our decision the Council should:
1. amend the wording on its webpage titled “Council Tax and moving in or out of Newham” to make it clear that if a resident updates their address using the government’s register to vote service, this does not inform the Council’s council tax department their address has changed;
2. tell us the outcome of its record-keeping review as mentioned in paragraph 35; and
3. through training or a staff briefing, remind all relevant staff about the importance of recording key information, such as council tax reminder letters, on residents’ case files.
45. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

46. I find fault causing injustice. The Council agreed to recommendations to remedy the injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman