The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council pursuing council tax recovery for an account established in error. There is insufficient evidence of any significant injustice cause by fault which would warrant an investigation.
The complaint
Mrs X complained about the Council pursuing her for council tax arrears which she did not owe due to a data input error. She says the recovery letters caused her some distress and confusion about her council tax account and benefits.
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 fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered the information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mrs X says she received letters from enforcement agents about council tax arrears when she believed her tax was fully paid. The bills were issued for a previous address which she no longer occupied. The Council admitted that a processing error had created a new account instead of closing her previous one, resulting in the recovery process for arrears on that account.
Mrs X contacted the Council about the enforcement agent’s demands in May 2024 and the Council realised the error and withdrew the recovery and amended its records. It also apologised to Mrs X for the mistake and any distress caused.
Mrs X subsequently complained and asked the Council for compensation for its error. Mrs X did not suffer an financial loss due to the recovery action because she was unaware of the procedure until the enforcement agents contacted her and she made no payments.
Our role is to consider complaints where the person bringing the complaint has suffered significant personal injustice as a direct result of the actions or inactions of the organisation. This means we will normally only investigate a complaint where the complainant has suffered serious loss, harm, or distress as a direct result of faults or failures. We will not normally investigate a complaint where the alleged loss or injustice is not a serious or significant matter.
Whilst the Council’s error may have caused some distress to Mrs X at a difficult time, it was promptly resolved when she became aware of the recovery action and in this case an apology is sufficient for the upset it may have caused.
Mrs X also complained about a data breach in disclosing her council tax account to a different address. The Information Commissioner is the body which deals with complaints about data breaches and it is reasonable for her to make a complaint to that body if she believes she has been affected.
Final decision
We will not investigate this complaint about the Council pursuing council tax recovery for an account established in error. There is insufficient evidence of any significant injustice cause by fault which would warrant an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman