Gloucester City Council (25 014 200)
Category : Benefits and tax > Council tax
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 29 Jan 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about council tax recovery. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault to warrant investigation.
The complaint
- Mr X complains says the Council’s enforcement agent unfairly pursued recovery action for council tax arrears when he missed a payment. He says this led to agents visiting his home and significant extra fees and stress.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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 or continue 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)).
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council. I also considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X complained to the Council’s enforcement agent regarding the matters in paragraph 1.
- The enforcement agent replied that Mr X missed or underpaid instalments on two payment plans. The agent sent a reminder regarding a payment due. However, as it is the responsibility of the person making the payments to manage payment and the agent was not required to notify Mr X when the payment plan was broken.
- The agent confirmed its actions were correct as after the second missed payment it had progressed to enforcement. This resulted in the added fee.
- There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council’s agent to warrant investigation. The agent’s further recovery action was after two payments were missed.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to warrant investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman