Summary: Mr X complained the Council did not apply his single person council tax discount and wrongly instructed enforcement agents to take debt recovery action against him. He also complained about poor communication from the Council. The Council was not at fault for the way it handled Mr X’s council tax account or for instructing enforcement agents. The Council was at fault for its lack of communication with Mr X, which caused him distress and uncertainty. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mr X.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained about the way the Council dealt with his council tax account. He says the Council failed to apply his single person discount and incorrectly instructed enforcement agents to start debt recovery action against him without notice. He also complained of poor communication. He says the Council’s actions have caused him distress and anxiety, and he has spent time and trouble trying to resolve the matter.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. We investigate complaints about councils and certain other bodies. Where an individual, organisation or private company is providing services on behalf of a council, we can investigate complaints about the actions of these providers. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(1)(A), and 25 (7) as amended)
4. When considering complaints we make findings based on the balance of probabilities. This means that we look at the available relevant evidence and decide what was more likely to have happened.
5. 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/care provider has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
6. 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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What I have and have not investigated

7. Mr X complained about matters starting in 2023, but he did not refer his complaint to us until May 2025. I am satisfied there are no good reasons why he could not have bought his complaint to us sooner. Therefore, I have only considered matters from May 2024. I have, however, referred to matters that took place in 2023 to explain what happened leading up to Mr X’s complaint.

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How I considered this complaint

8. I considered evidence provided by Mr X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
9. 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

Council tax

10. 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)
11. Laws and regulations also control how enforcement agents can collect money owed to the council. (The Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007)
12. 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).
13. Councils who want 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.
14. 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.
15. A single person discount is a reduction in council tax given when only one adult lives in a property. The discount gives 25% off the normal council tax bill.

Enforcement agents – standards to consider actions against

16. When considering complaints about enforcement agents as well as the relevant law and regulations we also consider their actions against the standards set out by the Enforcement Conduct Board, an independent body which considers the actions of enforcement agents.

Enforcement agents - taking control of goods

17. 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.
18. 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)

Enforcement agents – fees

19. Regulations set out how much an enforcement agent can charge when recovering debt and the three stages they must follow.

• The Compliance Stage – an enforcement agent must issue a notice of enforcement. The fee for this stage is £75.
• The Enforcement Stage – this stage starts once an enforcement agent has made a first visit. This must be at least seven days after sending the notice of enforcement. At this visit the agent can take control of goods. The fee for this stage is £235. If the outstanding debts are more than £1,500, the agent can charge a further 7.5% of the amount outstanding over £1,500.

What happened

20. Mr X initially applied for a single person discount for his council tax in February 2023. The Council contacted him shortly after to request further information so it could process his claim, but it did not hear back from Mr X.
21. In March 2024, Mr X contacted the Council and queried why his single person discount had not been applied to his council tax account. His council tax account was in arrears with outstanding balances from 2022 to 2024.
22. The Council’s case notes state it issued a first reminder to Mr X for unpaid council tax in April.
23. The Council responded to Mr X and advised him to submit the single person discount application and all required information.
24. Mr X submitted the application in May. He also emailed the Council and said he had submitted the single person discount application previously, and that it should have been processed at the time he had first applied for the discount in 2023. He said he believed the Council were pursuing him for an amount of money he did not owe, since it had not applied his single person discount.
25. The Council applied the single person discount to Mr X’s account in August. It backdated the discount to February 2023. It sent new bills for years 2022 to 2024 with amended outstanding balances.
26. The Council did not receive payment from Mr X, and its case notes show it issued a second reminder in October. It then referred the matter to the magistrates’ court and issued Mr X with a summons. The court issued a liability order in December 2024. A liability order gives councils a legal right to take enforcement action to collect unpaid council tax.
27. Mr X did not make the required payments, so the Council instructed an enforcement agent company (Company A) to start debt recovery action in January 2025. The Council’s case notes show it sent a letter to Mr X’s address to inform him of this. Company A issued a notice of enforcement letter the following day and, when it did not hear from Mr X and the notice expired after seven days, issued a taking control of goods notification in February. Company A contacted Mr X by letter and case notes show it also attempted phone contact and visited his address.
28. Company A’s case notes then show it added a compliance fee of £75 when it issued the notice of enforcement. It then added £235 for the first visit to Mr X’s address.
29. The Council issued a further bill in March, a reminder in April and a final notice in May. Company A sent Mr X a removal of goods notice in May.
30. In May, Mr X contacted the Council again and said he had not received a response to his complaint. He said enforcement agents from Company A continued to attend his address and the Council had not informed him that it had become involved. He felt it had not followed the correct procedure in instructing Company A. He also said Company A kept adding debt to his outstanding balance.
31. Mr X approached the Ombudsman in May 2025.
32. The Council responded to Mr X in June, confirming the single person discount had been applied to his account in August 2024. It told him it had sent new bills for 2022/23, 2023/24, and 2024/25 to his address, showing the discount and outstanding balances. It confirmed it had received some payments from him from March 2024 to January 2025, but there were still outstanding arrears.
33. The Council also said, as Mr X had made no contact or further payment following the liability order, it had passed the arrears to Company A in January 2025. It said it had sent letters to his address to inform him of this at the time. It told Mr X to contact it to arrange a payment plan.

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Analysis

The Council’s handling of Mr X’s council tax account

34. Mr X says the Council failed to apply his single person discount to his account and continued to charge him the higher rate of council tax. However, Mr X correctly submitted the application and necessary information in May 2024. The Council processed the application in August 2024, and backdated the discount to February 2023, when he had first moved into his property. It then issued him updated bills with the amended outstanding balances. This is in line with what we would expect, and there is no evidence of fault in the Council’s handling of his account.
35. Mr X said the Council wrongly passed his case to Company A and failed to notify him it had done so. However, the Council referred his case to Company A after it had issued two reminders, a final notice and the court had issued a liability order when Mr X’s council tax remained unpaid. A referral to an enforcement agent company is the correct process when a person continues to not pay their council tax following a liability order. The Council was not at fault for following this process.
36. The Council told the Ombudsman it sent the above documents to Mr X’s address. However, it has said it is unable to provide evidence of this as its system is only able to produce the documentation once. Although Mr X says he did not know of Company A’s involvement, on the balance of probabilities, it is likely that the Council did send the above letters to Mr X’s address, since the Council’s contemporaneous case notes support this. It is also unlikely the court would have granted the liability order if the Council had not followed the correct process and sent the documents to Mr X’s address. In addition, Company A is contracted by the Council and acts on its behalf. I have seen evidence that Company A sent a letter to Mr X the day after it received his case to inform him of its involvement. Therefore, there is no evidence to support Mr X’s claim he was not aware of its involvement.

The Council’s communication

37. Mr X said the Council failed to respond to his complaint from May 2024 about the actions of Company A. When the Ombudsman made enquiries of the Council, it said it did not have a complaint from Mr X on file. Mr X did not provide a copy of a formal complaint, so I am unable to make a full assessment of the situation.
38. However, I have seen copies of emails Mr X sent to the Council that show he was concerned that enforcement agents from Company A had been visiting his address. He said he had not been informed of its involvement and did not understand why additional fees were being added. He also felt Company A was pursuing him for money he did not owe, since the single person discount had not been added when he had first applied for it. It appears the Council only responded to Mr X’s concerns formally when he raised the issue again a year later in June 2025.
39. The Council should have responded to Mr X’s concerns when he raised them in 2024, rather than a year later. Although the Council and Company A had sent documentation to his address, and he needed to pay his outstanding council tax balance, he was unsure and wanted the situation explained to him in a different way. That the Council did not respond to his concerns separately is fault, which caused Mr X frustration and distress. I have recommended a suitable remedy below. The Council has recently agreed to make a service improvement in another similar case in relation to providing clear and timely communication in relation to the council tax process. It will take some time for this to take effect, so I have not made another service improvement here.

Conduct of Enforcement Agents

40. I have reviewed case notes that show actions taken by Company A. It sent Mr X a notice of enforcement letter in January 2025. I can see it then attempted, unsuccessfully, to contact Mr X on multiple occasions. It then progressed the case to the taking control of goods stage in February when Mr X made no payment or contact. Enforcement agents also visited his address, though there is no evidence to suggest they made face to face contact with Mr X or entered his property.
41. I have not been able to speak to Mr X and get further information about his reports of poor conduct of Company A. However, from the evidence available, I cannot see any fault in its actions, and it has acted in line with how we would expect. Mr X told the Ombudsman that Company A increased the amount of debt owed and did not explain why. As explained above, enforcement agent companies add a compliance fee of £75 and further enforcement fee of £235. Company A’s case notes confirm this is what the fees were for and I have seen evidence it sent letters to Mr X to advise of this. Therefore, I do not find fault.

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Agreed action

42. Within one month of the final decision the Council has agreed to apologise to Mr X for the distress and frustration caused by the identified fault.
43. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above action.

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Decision

44. I have completed my investigation. I find fault causing injustice for which I have recommended a remedy.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman