Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council recovering unpaid council tax for the past three financial years. It was reasonable for Miss X to have been aware of her liability and there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council which would warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained about the Council telling her that she had not paid council tax since 2020 following the failure of her direct debit arrangement in that year. She says she could have been contacted about the arrears by email or text but did not receive any contact about the outstanding payments until this year.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

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

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. Miss X says she believed she had set up a direct debit in 2020 to pay her council tax directly from her bank account. In 2024 the Council contacted her and informed her that it had not received payments since 2020 and that her account was in arrears by a four-figure sum.
6. Miss X complained to the Council about its failure to inform her earlier and said that she had not received any emails or texts about arrears in this period. The Council says that it suspended arrears recovery during the COVID-19 pandemic period and that after this its computer systems suffered a serious cyber attack which meant that court recovery was again suspended until payments could be verified. However, it sent Miss X annual council tax demands so she should have been aware of her liability and the fact that she was not paying.
7. Councils as billing authorities have a duty to issue annual demands by post and to recover any unpaid council tax. The Council says the direct debit was cancelled and it does not have the power to do this, it could only come from the bill payer’s bank instruction or their own instruction. If recovery action had been taken in the following years it would have been by post, councils do not issue recovery correspondence by email or text.
8. The Council applied reductions to Miss X’s account backdated to 2020 when she complained but it says she remains liable for the rest of the unpaid debt. It says that although it did not issue reminders Miss X must have been aware that her bank account was not being debited by a four-figure sum each year and the payments were due to be paid by one means or another. The annual bills informed her how much the monthly amount was required.
9. We cannot question Miss X’s liability for council tax and it is clear that she was required to pay for the years when she made no payment. The Council has explained why it took no enforcement action in this period and, even had it done so, she would still have had to make the due payments. The Council has allowed Miss X to reduce the arrears by monthly payments and she has not suffered any financial loss over the payments which were not received.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate this complaint about the Council recovering unpaid council tax for the past three financial years. It was reasonable for Miss X to have been aware of her liability and there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council which would warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman