Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s issue of a council tax bill and payment instalments. There is insufficient evidence of fault causing any significant injustice which would warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained about being issued with a late council tax bill for 2025/26 which resulted in his payment instalments being made over 10 months instead of 12 montsh as he expected them to be. He says this interfered with his budgeting for that year at the time.

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

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

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mr X says he did not receive his council tax bill for 2025/26 until July which meant he was offered payments over 10 months instead of 12 months as he had expected.
6. The Council says that the delay was due to documents relating to an appeal he made to the Valuation Tribunal causing a suspension of recovery action and also any new billing until the appeal was determined. The Council allowed 10 monthly instalments following the issue of the bill which were payable up to the end of April 2026 to prevent overlapping with the following year.
7. Councils are required to split the annual Council tax bill into 10 separate monthly payments. Taxpayers have a right to ask for the bill to be spread over 12 months to reduce the monthly cost. However, the billing authority has discretion to agree this and in this case the delay due to the appeal documents meant that it was not practical to do so.
8. Our role is to consider complaints where the person bringing the complaint has suffered significant personal injustice as a direct result of the actions or inactions of the organisation. This means we will normally only investigate a complaint where the complainant has suffered serious loss, harm, or distress as a direct result of faults or failures. We will not normally investigate a complaint where the alleged loss or injustice is not a serious or significant matter.
9. In this case the Council explained why the bill was delayed and so why payments could not be made over 12 months.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s issue of a council tax bill and payment instalments. There is insufficient evidence of fault causing any significant injustice which would warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman