Summary: Miss X complained about the Council referring council tax debts to enforcement agents when she says she believes she had cleared them. The Ombudsman should not exercise his discretion to investigate this complaint. This is because it concerns matters which the complainant was aware of more than 12 months before they complained to us. There is no requirement for the Council to take cases back from agents just because the complainant requests it.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Miss X, complains about the Council passing council tax debts to enforcement agents. She disputes that she owes the debts from previous years and wants the Council to take the accounts back under its own supervision.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
3. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I have considered all the information which Miss X submitted with her complaint. I have also considered the Council’s response.

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What I found

5. Miss X complains that the Council referred council tax debts from previous years to enforcement agents when she believes she had paid off the debts. The debts relate to the financial years 2015, 2015 and 2016 for which the Council obtained liability orders from the court for non-payment. The Council says it sent the debts to enforcement agents in 2018 following correspondence with Miss X. It has a payment arrangement with her for the year 2013 and the current financial year.
6. Miss X challenged the costs added by the enforcement agents and refuses to pay them directly because her debt is with the Council. The Council says the costs are set by the Ministry of Justice and are standard amounts. It will not supervise these debts itself because Miss X forfeited that opportunity when she failed to maintain payment arrangements in previous years.
7. The Ombudsman will not normally investigate complaints about matters which the complainant was aware of more than twelve months before they complained to us. The debts were referred to the agents in 2018 and we will not exercise discretion to look at this now because there is insufficient evidence of any fault by the Council. Miss X will need to make any payment arrangements with the enforcement agents for the debts which they are collecting on the Council’s behalf.

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Final decision

8. The Ombudsman should not exercise his discretion to investigate this complaint. This is because it concerns matters which the complainant was aware of more than 12 months before they complained to us. There is no requirement for the Council to take cases back from agents just because the complainant requests it.

Investigator’s final decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman