The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about historic council tax arrears. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council and because he could have challenged the Council’s decision in court. .
The complaint
The complainant, who I will call Mr X, complains that the Council decided to pursue him for an historic council tax debt.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6)) The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
In 2010, Mr X moved into a property that had previously been delisted as was deemed to be uninhabitable. Mr X called the Council to inform it of the move, but the Council failed to update records and therefore no council tax bills were issued to Mr X. In 2021, the Council became aware of where Mr X was living and issued a bill for the previous six years of council tax. After no payment was received the Council issued Mr X with a court summons and then obtained a liability order in court.
The Council should have updated its records in 2010 and issued Mr X with a Council tax bill. However, Mr X had previously dealt with the Council regarding council tax for another property, and it is therefore reasonable to have expected Mr X to have known he would have been liable for council tax at his new property and should have contacted the Council when no bills were received. I therefore do not consider the Council at fault for pursuing Mr X when it became aware of where he was living in 2021.
Furthermore, Mr X had the opportunity to challenge the Council’s decision by raising a defence in court during the proceedings to consider the liability order.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault and it would have been reasonable for him to challenge the Council’s decision in court.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman