Council issues apology to Barnet resident over errors that led to her being threatened with legal action, reports Simon Allin, Local Democracy Reporter

A Barnet resident was unfairly threatened with court action for not paying her council tax because of a “catalogue of clerical confusion and billing errors”.

According to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, the woman faced months of uncertainty and had her debt referred to bailiffs after Barnet Council failed to make a simple change to her council tax account.

The ombudsman, which investigates complaints against local authorities, told the council to apologise and pay the woman £334 to clear her remaining council tax balance.

A report by the ombudsman states that the woman – who was anonymised to protect her identity – told the council in April 2019 that her daughter had moved out two months earlier. Explaining that her benefits had recently stopped and she had no money to pay the council tax bill, she asked for bills in her name only and the single-person discount.

Instead, the council closed her original account and created a new one before emailing her asking her to confirm whether any other adults were living in the property – but because she did not use the email account, she did not receive the email.

Over the next ten months, the council sent her 20 bills – some showing her account was in credit, others showing a deficit. But the ombudsman said the council never explained the differing amounts or told the woman that the credits she had built up could not be used to offset the bill.

The watchdog added that the council ignored the woman’s requests to communicate by letter and kept on sending her emails. It said that when the correct bill was finally issued, the woman was only given a few weeks to pay. The council obtained a court order to recover her outstanding debt and passed it to bailiffs, who traced the account to the wrong address.

The ombudsman said that instead of opening a second account, the council could have amended the details on the original or stopped producing new bills for a month to allow for the benefit changes to be made. Failing to do so left the woman facing “confusion and uncertainty over what she actually owed”.

It also criticised the council for failing to provide accurate information on bills, for not communicating with the woman by letter until it established that it had her correct email address, and for errors in its complaint handling.

Paul Najsarek, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, said: “Councils across the country handle millions of council tax accounts every year, and in the vast majority of cases these are billed and administered without a hitch. This case highlights the importance of getting the basics right, and demonstrates what can go wrong when seemingly minor errors are compounded by too rigid policies.”

Barnet Council accepted the ombudsman’s recommendations and agreed to waive the bailiff fees. A spokesperson said: “Upon receiving the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman’s findings, we have taken the necessary steps to action the remedies as quickly and efficiently as possible.

“We apologise for the issues relating to this resident’s 2019/20 council tax bill. We are always striving to provide the best possible services for our residents and we are disappointed on this occasion we have fallen short. Therefore, we are also using this as a learning opportunity to prevent anything like this from happening again.”

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