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

The complaint

1. Mr X says the Council closed his council tax account in error after it received information from a third party about a tenant moving in. He also believed that his personal data was wrongly shared with others. This caused him distress and inconvenience.

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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. Mr X complained to the Council about the matters in paragraph 1, amongst other issues.
5. The Council replied explaining the reasons why it had closed Mr X’s account. It said the address received from a third party matched Mr X’s address. The Council had no reason to believe it was incorrect. However, it said it had now put in place extra checks on information received from this third party.
6. The Council said it knew by the next working day that it had closed the account in error, as the information was not in relation to Mr’s address. The Council corrected the account quickly. The Council said there was a misunderstanding about the information it could give Mr X. The Council said it had provided further training for officers. The Council did not accept it should pay Mr X compensation.
7. We will not investigate this complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council in closing the account to warrant investigation. The Council said it acted in good faith on the information it received. The Council reopened the account promptly.
8. The Council said it there was a misunderstanding about information it could give Mr X. It has taken appropriate steps in providing training for officers. There is no significant injustice from this to warrant our involvement.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to warrant our involvement regarding the account closure. There is no significant injustice from the information sharing part of Mr X’s complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman