Birmingham City Council (24 016 581)
Category : Benefits and tax > Council tax
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 11 Mar 2025
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council's handling of a council tax account as the alleged fault by the Council does not cause Mr X a level of injustice that would justify our further involvement
The complaint
- Mr X complains the Council wrongly contacted him about council tax relating to his tenant. Mr X says this made him feel harassed
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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 any alleged fault has not caused significant injustice to the person who complained (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
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 its complaint response to Mr X, the Council says that it made Mr X liable for council tax for a period at his rental property after Mr X’s tenant had told the Council they were vacating the property. Some months later, the Council says the tenant contacted it again to give a later date of moving which meant Mr X was not liable for the period in question and that account was therefore deleted.
- Mr X is unhappy that he was billed, that he had to contact the Council about this and that he was asked to provide information which was for the tenant to provide.
- While I recognise Mr X remains dissatisfied with how the Council handled this matter, the injustice he describes does not represent a level of injustice that would justify our further involvement. We have limited resources and must direct them to the most serious of cases. This is not such a case.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because he is not caused a level of injustice from the alleged Council fault that would justify our further involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman