Summary: Mr X complained about the Council taking enforcement action against him for a council tax debt he did not owe. He had three visits from enforcement agents. The Council was at fault for an error in calculating council tax support, then taking enforcement action and not resolving the complaint earlier. The Council will pay Mr X £300 to acknowledge the impact on him of its fault.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council took enforcement action against him for a council tax debt he did not owe. He says the Council then ignored the details he provided in his complaint and so failed to remedy the situation as soon as it could. Mr X says he is vulnerable because of his medical condition and suffered significant stress as a result of three visits by enforcement agents.

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
3. If we are satisfied with a council’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)

How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information from:
   • Mr X’s complaint and from a telephone conversation with him; and
   • the Council’s response to Mr X’s complaint.
5. I gave Mr X and the Council an opportunity to comment on a draft of this decision and took into account the comments received.

What I found

6. Mr X has claimed council tax support from the Council since 2016. He moved house in early 2018 and claimed council tax support from his new address.
7. The Council assessed Mr X’s claim and awarded council tax support but, in error, did not backdate the support to the correct date. The error meant Mr X was left owing £13.79 in council tax for 2018/19 but Mr X says he did not know this.
8. The Council’s assessment of council tax support for 2019/20 led to Mr X having no council tax to pay himself.
9. For the 2018/19 council tax debt the Council went through its council tax recovery procedures and got a liability order from the magistrates court in August 2018. It passed the debt to enforcement agents. Mr X says he received no notifications of any of this. He says the first he knew of the debt was when an enforcement agent visited his home in January 2019. Mr X was out and the enforcement agent left a letter explaining Mr X now owed £438.79. This amount included the costs associated with the recovery action so far.
10. Mr X complained to the Council about what had happened. The Council replied but did not consider when council tax support should have started at the new address. So the Council said it had taken recovery action properly.
11. Mr X then contacted a councillor and his local MP. Enforcement agents visited twice more and Mr X explained to them he was challenging the alleged debt.
12. In March 2019 a senior officer reviewed Mr X’s council tax account, including his council tax support application. The officer accepted there had been an error regarding the start date for Mr X’s council tax support and rectified the error. The officer removed the summons costs and withdrew the case from the Council’s enforcement team. This left Mr X with a zero council tax bill for 2018/19 and no other costs to pay.
13. The Council has apologised to Mr X for the errors it made on his account and the inconvenience and distress it may have caused him. The Council offered to pay him £150 to acknowledge this. Mr X considered this was not enough and complained to the Ombudsman.
14. I made enquiries of the Council about the complaint. As a result of those enquiries the Council has now offered to pay Mr X £300. I consider this is an appropriate amount given the Council missed out on an opportunity to resolve this earlier through its complaints procedure and Mr X was particularly vulnerable to any delay and further visits from enforcement agents.

Agreed action

15. Within a month of this decision the Council will pay Mr X £300. The payment is to acknowledge the impact on Mr X of the Council’s error in calculating council tax support, the subsequent enforcement action and Mr X’s time and trouble pursuing the matter.

Final decision

16. I have now completed my investigation because the Council’s agreed action will remedy the injustice caused to Mr X as the result of the Council’s fault.