Summary: Mrs X says the Council acted wrongly in taking enforcement action against her for unpaid council tax. She says she suffered an injustice as she was visited by enforcement officers and charged fees, causing financial hardship. The Council is not at fault.

The complaint

1. Mrs X says the Council:

• Wrongly instructed enforcement agents to recover council tax debt, and
• Charged her fees for enforcement agents visits, which has caused her financial hardship.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. 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)
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 councils and certain other bodies. Where an individual, organisation or private company is providing services on behalf of a council, we can investigate complaints about the actions of these providers. (Local Government Act 1974, section 25(7), as amended)

7. When considering complaints, if there is a conflict of evidence, we make findings based on the balance of probabilities. This means that we will weigh up the available relevant evidence and base our findings on what we think was more likely to have happened.
8. If we are satisfied with a council’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

9. I considered the complaint file and spoke with the complainant.
10. I made enquiries of the Council and researched the relevant law.
11. Both the Council and the complainant had the opportunity to read my draft decision. I have taken into account any observations made before issuing this final decision.

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What I found

Relevant law

12. Council tax is the primary source of collecting income from local residents by local authorities. If payments are not made, councils have a range of enforcement measures that they can use. There are strict regulations that councils must follow when using enforcement measures. The scheme of enforcement of council tax is governed by the Local Government Finance Act 1992 (LGFA 1992).
13. Before recovery action is commenced, the person liable for paying council tax must be sent a reminder and be given notice before that action begins. Recovery action is through the issue of a summons and obtaining a liability order through the magistrates’ courts. The grant of a liability order enables a local authority to employ one of a range of options to enforce the sum outstanding.
14. Debtors can reach special payment arrangements (SPAs) with their council. Good practice is to confirm such arrangements in writing, to send regular reminders if payments are not received and to take further action as soon as possible if payments are not made after a reminder is sent. Councils do not have to keep copies of documents sent to tax-payers.

Background

15. I have not recorded everything that happened here, only those events that are material to my decision.

September 2017 Special Payment Arrangement

16. Mrs X is a mother with four children. In or around 2017, she lived at an address, which I shall call House Y. She incurred council tax debt. In March 2017, a liability order was granted for the debt. In September 2017, she came to an agreement with the Council to pay £20 per month towards that debt. I will call that debt, Debt (1).
17. The Council does not have a copy of the letter it sent to Mrs X setting out the terms of the arrangement. However, it has shown me a copy of the type of standard letter it says it would have sent. At the bottom of the letter it says that a failure to maintain the arrangement may result in the Debt (1) being passed to enforcement agents for recovery.
18. The Council has shown me a copy of its computer records confirming the date the arrangement was set up and the arrears at that time.
19. Mrs X kept up with her instalment arrangement for many months. She then missed an instalment in September 2018 and December 2018. Before any recovery action was taken, she caught up with her payments.
20. On 21 January 2019, Mrs X called the Council to say she would be moving to a new address, which I shall call House Z. The Council says the records do not show she told the Council she still owned House Y, so it closed this account. The arrears at this time were £1223.50.
21. On 23 January 2019, the Council says it sent Mrs X a bill for this amount to her new address, House Z. It does not have a copy of the letter sent but I have seen a copy of its records, showing it was sent and setting out the amount.

New bill including arrears for Debt (1) and new charge for House Y.

22. In May 2019, the Council learned that Mrs X still owned House Y. Therefore, it generated a new bill. This included a charge for the empty and unfurnished property at House Y, from January 2019 to March 2019.
23. It also included a new charge for House Y. It says the bill would have set out that to pay the new charge Mrs X would have to pay £137.33 on 1 June and then £140 per month thereafter.
24. It says this bill would also have set out that the total balance payable was £2481.03. This figure represented the remaining arrears of £1223.50 from House Y and the new charge of £1257.33 for House Y.
25. The Council does not have a copy of this bill but says the fact that there was an existing arrangement to pay the arrears for House Y would have been mentioned at the bottom of the bill.
26. The Council has shown me a copy of its computer record setting out the arrears figure and the new charge that had fallen due. It also appears to record that the bill was issued on 17 May 2019 and that it was produced as a result of reopening Mrs X’s account.
27. Mrs X did not pay in line with the requirements of this bill.

New special arrangement to pay set up in June 2019 for Debt (1)

28. After January 2019, Mrs X failed to make any further payments towards the Debt (1) arrangement (made in September 2017, see my para 18).
29. The Council says that on 5 June 2019 Mrs X called the Council. The telephone notes show another special payment arrangement was agreed with Mrs X for Debt (1). The notes show the first payment was due on 28 July 2019. The Council says it was also agreed to pay a further eleven payments of £102 from 28 August 2019 to 28 June 2020.
30. The Council does not have a copy of the standard letter it says it would have sent to Mrs X confirming the arrangement. However, it has shown me an example of the type of letter it would have sent. As with the previous arrangement in September 2019, it says it would have set out the arrears at that date and the warning that a failure to pay could be met with enforcement.
31. The Council says that if Mrs X thought, when she made this arrangement with the Council, it was to address the full balance of £2481.03 that she had been billed on 17 May 2019, this was “an unfortunate error on her part”.
32. It points out that after this arrangement was made, a reminder notice, summons and liability order notification for the new debt that was accruing at House Y, (which I shall call Debt (2)), was sent to Mrs X. It says this would have alerted Mrs X to the fact that there were separate debts being chased for payment.

Special arrangement to pay set up for House Y Debt (2) arrears

33. The summons for Debt (2) was sent to Mrs X on 17 July 2019. This time the Council set up an automatic special arrangement to pay. It says this gives tax-payers the opportunity to pay without a liability order being sought if payments are made.
34. Mrs X made no payments under this arrangement and a liability order was sent.
35. On 27 August 2019, Mrs X called the Council and arranged to pay Debt (2) by instalments of £50 per month. The officer who made a note of the arrangement made a mistake and recorded it as £50 per week. This caused some confusion but was later rectified.
36. Mrs X believes that the Council wrongly sent this debt to enforcement officers. However, the Council says this debt was not sent to enforcement.
37. The Council says the telephone notes do not show that the arrangement Mrs X already had with the Council to address Debt (1) was discussed at the same time as the arrangement was made to address Debt (2). But it says that at the time of this call, the arrangement for Debt (1) was not considered broken.
38. However, Mrs X had not paid the first instalment under the Debt (1) arrangement. And on 31 August 2019 the Council says it wrote to her to notify her that she had failed to pay. It says the letter advised her that if she did not bring the arrangement up to date the debt would be passed to Council enforcement agents.
39. The Council do not have a copy of the letter but have shown me a standard letter of its type. Its computer record also shows that a letter addressing the broken agreement was created on that day.

Enforcement agents instructed to recover arrears under Debt (1)

40. As the Council did not receive the instalment due on 28 July 2019, and as it had not received a response to its letter of 31 August 2019, it instructed enforcement agents on 28 September 2019.
41. On 1 October 2019, Mrs X paid £20. The Council says this supports its view that Mrs X knew she had older arrears under Debt (1) as this was the same amount she was paying under the arrangement made in September 2017.
42. On 5 October 2019 enforcement agents sent a letter to Mrs X asking her to get in contact to arrange payment. Costs were added to the balance outstanding.
43. In the meantime, Mrs X had been continuing to pay £50 per month to fulfil the special arrangement set up to address Debt (2).

Mrs X responds to enforcement agent action

44. On 15 October 2019, Mrs X emailed the Council. She said she had been contacted by enforcement agents even though she had been told this would not happen. She said she had made an arrangement to pay £50 per month and she had been doing this.
45. She emailed the Council again on 17 October 2019, saying that she had a letter from the Council which referred to the new arrangement. The Council believe she was actually referring to the letter which advised her she had failed to maintain her arrangement.
46. She said the enforcement agent action should be put on hold.
47. On 23 October 2019, the Council wrote to Mrs X. The letter referred to the debt Mrs X had accrued since 2009, (Debt (1)). It said she had made an arrangement on 5 June 2019 to address that debt. It said it had instructed enforcement agents to recover this debt.
48. It also referred to her other arrangement with the Council in August 2019, to address Debt (2). However, it noted that a letter had been sent to her for defaulting on this arrangement as she had failed to pay £50 per week. (The Council accept this was an error.)
49. The Council said it would reset this arrangement so that she would only need to pay £50 per month. It said the first payment was due on 15 November 2019.
50. The Council consider this email clarified that there were two separate debts and that it was Debt (1) that had been passed to enforcement agents.
51. The Council has apologised for failing to contact Mrs X following some further emails she sent but it says this failure did not cause her an injustice.
52. On 14 November 2019, Mrs X asked the Council again to hold off on enforcement action. She pointed out that she had four children in her house. She insisted that she did not know there were two payment arrangements and that she had been paying under the payment arrangement she was aware of.
53. The Council put enforcement action on hold. It said it did so after considering her comments about having children in the house.
54. Mrs X complained to the Council about the way the case had been handled.

Complaint response

55. In the Council’s stage one response it referred to Debt (1), being the debt related to a liability order obtained in September 2017. In the same paragraph it said that a special arrangement had also been put in place for Mrs X to settle debts for the years 2018/19 and 2019/20 (Debt (2)). It reminded her that her first payment was due on 15 November 2019. It said to avoid further recovery action it was important for her to maintain this agreement.
56. Mrs X responded that she had never been told about two separate arrears accounts. She said she only ever knew of one total.
57. The Council say that it had not mentioned a total when setting up her special payment arrangements.
58. On 2 January 2020, the Council sent another letter to Mrs X, setting out clearly that there were two separate accounts.

Analysis

59. The Council says it does not retain copies of all letters issued but it does issue special payment arrangement letters.
60. It informs me that it ‘would have’ provided Mrs X with confirmation of the agreements. This by itself would not be enough evidence for me to conclude that Mrs X was aware of the agreements to pay that the Council say she entered into. However, I have taken into account the computer records and other evidence the Council has provided to reach an on-balance decision about what information Mrs X was provided with.
61. Mrs X knew she had an old debt. She had been making payments towards that debt (Debt (1)) in 2017 and through into 2018. She would have known that the debt had not been extinguished when she moved from House Y. Before she left House Y she had – mostly - been paying in line with the arrangement the Council said it had with her. Even though the Council does not have a copy of the letter setting out the agreement, her payment in line with its terms, is enough for me to find that on balance she was sent a letter outlining its terms. This letter warned her that failure to pay might result in enforcement action. I conclude from this that Mrs X was aware of the possible consequences of failed payments.
62. However, when she stopped paying under this agreement in January 2019, with an outstanding balance of £1223.50, the Council did not rush to debt recovery action.
63. Instead it issued her with a new bill. I do not have a copy of the letter sent to Mrs X on 17 May 2019 outlining her total debt. But I accept the evidence of the Council’s computer records.
64. I also note that the Council made a note of a call Mrs X made to the Council on 5 June 2019, shortly after she was informed that she had a total debt of £2481.03. The Council computer records show that a special payment arrangement was entered into although the terms of that agreement are not specified.
65. I do not have a copy of the letter the Council say was sent to Mrs X following the conversation. But I do find that an agreement was entered into and I have made an on balance decision that as the Council’s computer records show the letter was created, it was sent to her. If Mrs X was, for any reason, unsure of the terms of the agreement, she could have contacted the Council. Mrs X was aware of the consequences of non-payment but she did not make any payment.
66. Mrs X says she only knew of one agreement and that was to pay £50 per month to her debt. This must refer to the special payment arrangement reached on 27 August 2019. Mrs X paid in line with this agreement.
67. But if Mrs X only knew about this agreement, this would mean that the conversation she had with the Council on 5 June 2019 did not happen. The evidence I have seen so far does not support this. There would be no reason for an officer to record that an agreement had been entered into if it had not, including the recording of an agreed first payment date.
68. It follows that when Mrs X failed to make any payment under the 5 June 2019 agreement, the Council was entitled to instruct enforcement agents. It had to send a reminder to Mrs X first and I find that it did this on 31 August 2019. There is computer record evidence the letter was created on that date.
69. When Mrs X first asked the Council to hold off enforcement, it did not have to. Stopping enforcement is a decision that involves consideration of all the circumstances. From September 2017 the Council had entered into two agreements with Mrs X in respect of Debt 1. It had sent a reminder to pay when she defaulted on the second agreement. The debt was based on a court-order liability order. It was entitled to continue to pursue recovery. The Council did not apply a blanket approach. When Mrs X wrote to it again in November 2019, explaining she had children in her property, it took that information into account and paused enforcement.
70. While the Council might find it helpful to keep copies of agreements reached between parties, I do not find it at fault for not doing so. The Council has been able to produce other evidence, such as its telephone notes and computer records, which show that Mrs X entered into an agreement on 5 June 2019 to pay Debt (1). She did not pay anything towards it. If, on 29 August 2019, when she agreed to pay instalments towards Debt (2), she was confused about which debt she was paying towards, she could have asked. Therefore, while I can see it might be confusing to have to juggle payments to two debts at the same time, I do not consider there is evidence of Council fault.

Other issues

71. The Council has acknowledged that it failed to respond to three of Mrs X’s emails. While I consider this was a shortcoming of the Council, I do not view it as so serious as to make a formal finding of fault, particularly as the Council has apologised. I consider this to be a suitable remedy.

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Final decision

72. I have not found the Council at fault and have now completed my investigation.

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Parts of the complaint that I did not investigate

73. Mrs X also complained about historic issues with her council tax. Some of the issues she raised happened too long ago for us to investigate. She also complained about missing out on council tax discounts and benefits. As Mrs X had the right to raise these issues with the Valuation Tribunal and was advised of this right by the Council, we have not investigated that part of her complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman