Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of her council tax account. There is insufficient evidence of fault to warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council stopped her direct debit arrangement to repay council tax arrears in January 2024 without good reason and passed the debt to enforcement agents. She says this caused financial loss and distress. She wants the Council to stop the enforcement action.

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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.

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

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. In its correspondence with Ms X, the Council told her that her bank had returned the direct debit to the Council as unpaid in January 2024. It said if she wanted to know the reason for this, she would need to contact her bank. As she had broken the agreed payment arrangement, it passed the debt to its enforcement agent at the end of January 2024.
6. Following her contact in July 2024, the Council reviewed her account. It said it could see she had made a card payment for £200 in mid-January 2024, but that this had been allocated to the current year’s council tax bill. As she had clarified that this payment was towards the arrears, and as she had made it before it passed the debt to the enforcement agent, it agreed to recall the debt and reinstate her payment arrangement from September 2024. It removed all enforcement fees added to her account since January 2024.
7. We will not investigate this complaint as there is insufficient evidence of fault. The Council has explained to Ms X that it was her bank that returned the payment as unpaid, which led to its decision to pass the debt to its enforcement agents. I have seen evidence of this returned payment from the bank. The Council is entitled to act to collect unpaid debts and so there is insufficient evidence of fault in this decision. Following Ms X’s contact, it has reviewed the situation, recalled the debt from its enforcement agent, removed added fees and agreed to reinstate the repayment arrangement. There is insufficient evidence of fault in the Council’s actions to warrant an investigation.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault to warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman