Summary: We will not investigate X’s complaint about council tax. There is no evidence of X suffering a significant injustice which meets the threshold for our involvement and in any case, there would be no worthwhile outcome achievable by our involvement.

The complaint

1. X complained the Council did not properly register hew property for council tax when she moved into it, despite her asking it to.
2. X said this caused stress, uncertainty and a negative financial impact.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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:

• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

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

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. X moved into a new property in September 2024. She said she contacted the Council several times to set up a council tax account, but it did not.
7. In November 2025, the Council said there had been delays in the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) valuing the property. However, it also said that it should have set up an unbanded council tax account for X to allow payments to be made in the interim.
8. In its complaint response, the Council apologised for the error, set up the interim council tax account and said it would consider extending the payment period for any outstanding balance once the VOA valuation was complete.
9. X said this caused distress because she now faced a bill for the full amount of council tax payable from when she moved into her home. She said this put her in a worse financial position than it would have, if the account was set up sooner.
10. While I acknowledge the distress these matters caused X, 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. I do not consider X has suffered an injustice meeting this threshold.
11. X would have been liable for the council tax on her property, regardless of when the account was set up.
12. In any case, the actions taken by the Council as set out in paragraph eight appear appropriate. We would not achieve significantly more than this if we investigated and so I do not consider there is any worthwhile outcome achievable by us investigating.
13. For these reasons, we will not investigate this complaint.

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Final decision

14. We will not investigate X’s complaint because she has not suffered a significant injustice which meets the threshold for our involvement and there would be no worthwhile outcome achievable by our involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman