Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Miss B’s complaint about the council tax recovery action the Council has taken. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Miss B, complained about the council tax recovery action the Council has taken. She told us this has increased her financial burden.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. We cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended)
4. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone can appeal to a tribunal. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to appeal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
5. The Valuation Tribunal deals with appeals against decisions on council tax liability and council tax support or reduction.
6. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe:

• it is unlikely we would find fault, or
• it is unlikely we could add to any previous investigation by the Council, or
• it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

7. I have considered the information Miss B provided and given her an opportunity to comment on my draft decision.

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What I found

8. Miss B initially complained to us in April 2019. She complained that she did not believe the Council had correctly calculated the council tax she was liable to pay. She said she had made payments to the Council to clear her arrears but the Council had referred her case to bailiffs who had visited her home.
9. We told Miss B she should first of all take her complaint through the Council’s complaint procedure. She did this but she resubmitted her complaint to us in June 2019.
10. Miss B told us she has been paying council tax for a number of years with no issues. In its response to Miss B’s complaint the Council said it had amended her council tax support. When the Council made a change to Miss B’s council tax support, this had the effect of changing the amount of council tax due. Miss B had the right to appeal to the Valuation Tribunal if she thought the Council’s decision on her council tax support was wrong. That is because this is the specific method the law provides for challenging such decisions.
11. The Council says it sent a council tax adjustment notice to Miss B in August 2018. This was to tell her there was a further payment due for 2017/18 and for other years. The Council says it sent a final notice to Miss B requesting payment by a date in September 2018.The final notice warns a summons would be sent if payment was not made within five days and costs would be added.
12. This case has been complicated by the fact that during 2018 the Council told Miss B that as well as paying the council tax due in the current year, she had to pay additional council tax for two previous years.
13. Ms B says she asked the council for an explanation. She told us she started to make payments even though she was not satisfied with the Council’s explanation. The Council’s records show the amounts Miss B paid in November and December 2018 and January 2019 were for the payment arrangement for 2018/19 only.
14. The Council says a summons was sent to Miss B in December 2018. Miss B says the matter came to court without her knowledge. We cannot investigate complaints about the Council’s commencement of court proceedings. Once the court had decided Miss B’s council tax liability, this something we cannot question.
15. The Council says it sent Miss B a Notice before action in January 2019. This was to notify her it would seek recovery action if she did not pay the amount it said was outstanding. The Council referred Miss B’s case to enforcement agents (bailiffs) in February 2019. Miss B then made some additional payments but these were not in accordance with the payment arrangement the Council had proposed in December 2018.
16. Miss B does not agree the Council should have instructed enforcement agents. She says, by the time they came to her home in April 2019, she had paid the money she owed to the Council. But the Council’s records show that by the time it responded to Miss B’s complaint in May 2019, although she had paid the amount due for 2018/19 there was still amounts outstanding from 2017/18 and 2016/17. In those circumstances there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

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Final decision

17. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

Investigator’s final decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman