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

The complaint

1. The complainant, Ms X, complains the Council closed her council tax account in error and failed to register her address correctly. She wants the Council to waive the arrears for 2024/25, apologise and pay compensation.

Back to top

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, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Ms X and the Council. I also considered our Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

4. Ms X lives in a building which was previously a business premise but has been converted into flats. The flats have the same council tax band. At various times the Council received different information regarding the numbering of the flats and has received conflicting information about the numbering of Ms X’s flat. For example, the tenancy agreement said one address, emails said another, and Ms X logged onto the portal giving another address. Throughout Ms X has remained in the same flat.
5. In November the Council received a move-in form which the automated system linked to Ms X’s address. This was incorrect as Ms X had not moved. The Council closed the account and did not take the November council tax instalment. It tried to collect the closing amount of council tax in December.
6. Ms X contacted the Council in December and the Council re-instated the account. It issued a new bill but the monthly instalments were higher. This was partly due to the erroneous closure of the account and partly because Ms X stopped paying.
7. The current position is that Ms X has agreed a payment plan with lower instalments than had originally been proposed when the Council re-opened the account.
8. Ms X says the Council had evidence of the correct address from January 2024 and should not have closed the account in November without checking with her.
9. I will not start an investigation because there is insufficient evidence of fault causing injustice. There has been a lot of confusion over the correct recording of the address for Ms X’s flat. There were aspects of this the Council could have handled better but other parties also contributed to the confusion and the registration of the flats was not straight forward. It is not entirely clear why the Council linked the move-in form to Ms X’s flat but, having seen the form, there were identifiers which linked the form to her flat and, as it is an automated process, the Council would not have contacted Ms X.
10. The Council closed the account in error which led to the cessation of Ms X’s payments; this was partly due to the account closing and partly because Ms X stopped the direct debit. However, the council tax situation was resolved in January and the Council sent a comprehensive email in February setting out what Ms X owed and why. However, Ms X has only just agreed a payment plan and, for many months, she made no payments.
11. There were elements of this case the Council could have handled better but there is insufficient evidence of fault causing injustice to warrant an investigation. Ms X has not been asked to pay any more council tax than had the account not been closed. She has not incurred any costs and, as she knew she had not moved and had an on-going liability, she could have put money aside to pay the council tax. Ms X continued to have access to the full range of services funded by council tax and there are no grounds to ask the Council to waive the council tax. I appreciate Ms X has been caused some time and trouble but this does not amount to a degree of injustice requiring an investigation.

Back to top

Final decision

12. We will not investigate this complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault causing injustice.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman