Summary: We will not investigate this council tax complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault causing injustice, and because the complainant could have used his appeal rights.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X says the Council delayed giving him a council tax bill and did not tell him about discounts and benefits.

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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, or
• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained.

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

3. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone has a right of appeal, reference or review to a tribunal about the same matter. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to use this right. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
4. The Valuation Tribunal deals with appeals against decisions on council tax liability and council tax reduction.

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council. I also considered our Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mr X was living with his mother until she went into care in late 2023. The social worker told Mr X, in November, that she had told the housing department about his mother’s move.
7. Mr X became liable for the council tax from late 2023. The Council issued council tax bills in May 2024, from November. The Council says it was not told, until May 2024, that Mr X’s mother had moved. The Council applied the single person discount (SPD) in July 2024 after Mr X returned a form saying he lived in the property alone.
8. Mr X applied for council tax reduction (CTR) which the Council awarded in July 2024. The decision said he could appeal to the Valuation Tribunal if he thought the CTR decision was wrong.
9. Mr X complained about the delay in issuing the council tax bill and the delay in applying the discount or telling him about CTR. Mr X said the social worker had reported his mother’s move in 2023. In response, the Council said the council tax team did not know about the move until May 2024. It looked again at the SPD and backdated it to November. The Council made a payment plan for the arrears and said it could not backdate the CTR.
10. I will not investigate this complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault causing injustice. The social worker reported the move to the housing team but there is no evidence that Mr X, or anyone else, informed the council tax team until May. Due to data protection rules the Councils must keep information within the department to which it was sent. This means the Council could not make Mr X liable until May and there is no suggestion of delay.
11. The Council could have backdated the SPD sooner, but this does not need an investigation. This is because Mr X had arrears regardless of when the SPD was applied to the account and the SPD has now been awarded from the start of his liability.
12. Mr X told the Council he wanted it to backdate the CTR to start of his liability. I will not investigate this issue because Mr X could have appealed to the Valuation Tribunal if disagreed with the start date of the claim.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate this complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault causing injustice and because Mr X could have used his appeal rights.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman