Summary: Mr X complained the Council wrongly billed him for payment of council tax and passed his account to its enforcement agents although it knew he contested the bills. We found the Council was not at fault in its handling of Mr X’s council tax account.

The complaint

1. Mr X said the Council wrongly billed him for payment of council tax for a property he owned. It then sent the accounts to its enforcement agents to recover the unpaid council tax when it knew he was contesting the bills. Mr X said the Council also delayed refunding the payments he had made in response to threats from its enforcement agents. Mr X said what happened caused untold stress and put him to much time and trouble dealing with the Council and its enforcement agents. Mr X wanted the Council to refund all the money he had paid to its enforcement agents. Mr X also asked for £200 compensation.

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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 consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
3. If we are satisfied with an organisation’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

4. I considered evidence provided by Mr X and the Council. I also considered relevant law, policy and guidance. I gave Mr X and the Council an opportunity to comment on a draft of this statement and considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

Background

5. Laws and regulations control how councils collect council tax payments and how they can make people pay council tax they owe. (Council Tax [Administration and Enforcement] Regulations 1992)
6. The council tax bill for the year is due on 1 April. A council will usually collect this through monthly instalments. If a person who has to pay council tax misses any instalment, the council will send them a reminder. If they still do not pay, or miss another payment, then they must pay all they owe (that is the full amount for the rest of the year).
7. Councils who want to recover unpaid council tax have to ask the magistrate’s court for a liability order against people it thinks owe it the money. Once a council has a liability order it can act to recover the money and any court costs owed. This may include asking enforcement agents to collect the debt.
8. Laws and regulations control how enforcement agents can collect money owed to the council. Enforcement agents can add their charges, as set out in regulations, to the debt they are recovering. For example, an enforcement agent must issue a ‘notice of enforcement’ for a council tax debt and may add a fee of £75 at that stage. (The Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007)

What happened

9. Mr X owned a property, which was managed by agents, and let to tenants. The Council said the agents told it new tenants had moved into the property. The Council opened a council tax account for the new tenants and closed the account of the former tenant. The Council said, six months later, the agents confirmed the date the former tenant had moved out of the property. There was about 15 months between the dates for the former tenant moving out and the new tenants moving into the property.
10. The Council billed Mr X, as owner/landlord of the property, for council tax for the 15 months between the new and former tenants. The Council had to send the bills to Mr X’s ‘proper address’. A person’s last known address is taken to be their proper address. The Council sent the bills, and further correspondence, to the address it held on its records as Mr X’s home address.
11. Mr X had moved home about five years earlier. Mr X said he did not receive any of the Council’s council tax correspondence about the property. The correspondence included summonses for non-payment of council tax and notices of liability orders for the council tax debt, which included the Council’s court costs. The Council said it was entitled to view the correspondence as properly delivered as the post office did not return it.
12. The Council passed the case to enforcement agents to try to recover the debt. After about two years, the enforcement agents returned the case to the Council with the debt unpaid.
13. After a further two years, the Council said Mr X contacted it to provide a new home address. And, about three months later, Mr X gave the Council another home address. The Council said it was reviewing several outstanding old council tax debts. So, it was about a year before it wrote to Mr X at his new home address about the council tax debt for the property. The Council’s letter told Mr X about the liability order and asked that he pay the debt within 14 days otherwise it might pass the case to enforcement agents.
14. Mr X replied saying he had not received any previous correspondence about the debt. Mr X asked why the Council was writing about council tax payable eight years earlier. Mr X also said he was not liable to pay the council tax as tenants had occupied the property throughout the 15 months covered by the debt.
15. In the correspondence that followed, the Council said it held no evidence to show there were tenants in the property during the 15 months. But, if Mr X provided proof of the tenancy/rent payments it would further consider liability to pay the council tax debt. The Council then, briefly, placed the account on ‘hold’, meaning there would be no further recovery action, to give Mr X an opportunity to respond.
16. About a month later, not hearing from Mr X, the Council again passed the account to enforcement agents to recover the debt. The enforcement agents sent Mr X ‘notices of enforcement’ adding their £75 fee. Mr X then contacted the Council explaining he had been both busy and ill and unable to respond sooner. Mr X said he had asked his bank for copy statements to show he had received rental payments from the property agent throughout the 15 months. Mr X also paid part of the council tax debt.
17. About two weeks later, Mr X sent the Council copy bank statements and made a formal complaint about its handling of the council tax account. Mr X said the Council should not have sent the case to enforcement agents when it knew he disputed his liability to pay the council tax. Mr X asked the Council to refund his recent payments and pay compensation for his time and the stress it had caused.
18. In response, the Council repeated that it had written to Mr X at his last known address when first billing him and then getting the liability orders. It had not held information to show the property had been tenanted during the 15 months billed to Mr X. It accepted the bank statements as evidence of the property tenancy. But, it needed the name of the tenant/s to update its records and bill the correct person/s as liable for the council tax. The Council said, as a goodwill gesture, it would then refund Mr X’s money and ask its enforcement agents to refund their fees. The Council refused to pay compensation saying it had not made an error causing Mr X significant financial loss.
19. During our investigation, Mr X confirmed the Council and its enforcement agents had refunded his money. The Council said it refunded Mr X’s payments about six weeks after receiving the information it had asked for about the property tenants.

Consideration

20. Our role is not to ask whether a council could have done things better, or whether we agree or disagree with what it did. Instead, we look at whether there was fault in how it made its decisions. If we decide there was no fault in how it did so, we cannot ask whether it should have made a particular decision or say it should have reached a different outcome.
21. Here, the Council billed Mr X for council tax for the property believing it was empty for 15 months between two tenancies. There was no evidence the Council knew the property was subject to a tenancy during the 15 months when it billed Mr X. I therefore found no fault here.
22. In billing Mr X and then pursuing payment of the council tax, the Council wrote to him at his last known postal address. The Council was entitled to do this. And I had no reason to doubt the Council when it said the post office did not return any of its correspondence. However, about two years later, when its first enforcement agents returned the case, the Council would have become aware it probably did not hold Mr X’s correct postal address.
23. The Council did not ‘write off’ the council tax debt after the first enforcement agents returned the case. Rather, the case remained an ageing but uncollected debt when, after another two years, Mr X got in touch with his new address. It is regrettable the Council took about another year to write to Mr X about the unpaid council tax. However, when it did so, its letter explained the billing and recovery steps it had taken to secure payment of the council tax. I found no fault here in the Council’s actions.
24. Mr X then effectively challenged the Council’s recovery action saying tenants occupied the property during the 15 months for which he had been billed. The Council’s response explained what information it needed to consider changing its records to show others as liable for the council tax. The Council’s letter gave Mr X a date by which he should pay the council tax debt or, if he could not pay, a contact telephone number to ring. The letter set out the choices available to Mr X and the deadline for acting on them. I did not therefore find the Council at fault, when it did not hear from Mr X by the date given, in passing the case to enforcement agents. In passing the case to enforcement agents, the Council remained without evidence the property was tenanted during the 15 months for which Mr X had been billed.
25. However, after the second enforcement agents became involved, Mr X contacted the Council. Mr X confirmed he was getting information about the tenants/tenancy of the property during the 15 months of his bills. The evidence showed Mr X also part paid the council tax debt around the same time as he contacted the Council. I therefore did not find the four weeks taken by the Council to respond to Mr X’s contact materially affected these events and Mr X’s part payment of council tax.
26. When the Council replied, it did so as part of its response to the complaint Mr X had made after paying part of the council tax debt. The Council then asked for more information about the tenants occupying the property during the 15 months for which Mr X was billed. And, the Council later acted without avoidable delay to refund Mr X’s money on receiving the further information it asked for. I therefore found no fault here.
27. So, while I recognise Mr X found what happened stressful and time consuming, I did not find the Council acted with fault.

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Decision

28. I found no fault in the Council’s handling of the relevant council tax account.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman