Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a backdated council tax bill. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council or significant injustice to Mrs X to warrant investigation.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council failed to register her for council tax from 2022 and it has now sent her a retrospective bill for over £7000. She says she returned bills addressed to the former owner and contacted the Council several times. She also said the Council received her email in June 2025, but it did not take any action until October 2025.

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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 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. I also considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

4. Mrs X complained to the Council regarding the matters in paragraph 1.
5. The Council replied it had partly upheld the complaint. It accepted some delay from August 2025 when it should have replied to her email. However, it did not accept it was responsible for late billing before that, as it received no contact from Mrs X between 2022 when she bought the property and late June 2025. It said it was the new owner or resident’s responsibility to notify the Council. It confirmed the balances due and said it would contact Mrs X to discuss a payment plan.
6. We will not investigate this complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council regarding delay registering Mrs X for council tax from 2022 to August 2025 to warrant investigation by the Ombudsman. The Council confirmed it did not receive contact from Mrs X until late June 2025.
7. We will not investigate the Council’s delay between August and October 2025 because the injustice due to the delay is not significant enough to warrant investigation. The Council has accepted its delay and apologised which is what we would expect it to do.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to warrant investigation. Where there was delay from August 2025, the injustice from this is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman