The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council's administration of a council tax account as there is insufficient remaining injustice caused to the complainant to justify our further involvement.
The complaint
Mr X complains the Council wrongly billed him for council tax after it failed to act on information he had provided to it about the sale of his property and misinterpreted Land Registry records. Mr X says this caused him stress.
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 the alleged fault has not caused injustice 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 information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
In its responses to Mr X, the Council explained why it had billed him for council tax. It said it was unable to say why an officer had not contacted him directly but it confirmed the account had been rectified. The Council apologised for any inconvenience and worry that had been caused.
While I recognise that Mr X remains dissatisfied with what happened, we will not investigate as any remaining injustice caused to him from any Council fault is not sufficient, from our perspective, to justify our further involvement. We have limited resources and must direct them to the most serious cases. I do not consider this to be such a case.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient remaining injustice caused to him from any Council fault to justify our further involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman