Sheffield woman suffers ‘injustice’ as council sends debt recovery letters to wrong address for years
Sheffield City Council has been found to be at fault for causing injustice and distress to a woman whose letters about council tax recovery were sent to a different address.
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman finished its investigation into a case where a council tenant’s new address was incorrectly recorded so she couldn’t receive letters on debt, recovery plans and enforcement proceedings.
The ombudsman said the complainant – called Ms X to protect her identity – had lived in a council property until June 2016 but claimed to have moved out of her home due to “the council failed to undertake necessary repairs”.
However, the council told the ombudsman that Ms X had left the property without saying she would do so and she also failed to provide a forwarding address.
The council added the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said Ms X had changed address in June 2016 – the address then was shared with the council.
The ombudsman explained the council had written to Ms X at her new address, asking her to confirm when she left her previous home but she did not respond to this letter. Because of this, the council couldn’t verify she actually lived at the new property and as a result, the council did not update its records to change Ms X’s address.
It continued to send council tax correspondence to the last confirmed address it had.
Following this, it is reported that Sheffield Council had sent a reminder, a summons and a liability order for outstanding council tax for the 2016/17 financial year to the first property (as the last confirmed address for Ms X).
The ombudsman added the council had said it sent these in August and September 2016 while in March 2017, it sent a council tax bill for the 2017/18 year to the first property.
Also, between April and May 2017, the council sent a reminder, a final notice and a summons to the property for the council tax owed in the 2017/18 financial year.
However, in June 2017 the post office returned these letters to the council as “undelivered”.
Following this development, the housing service confirmed the end of tenancy of Ms X and the property’s council tax account closed as of May 22, 2017. The housing service also confirmed Ms X’s new address – however, the council then “incorrectly recorded” Ms X’s new property’s address on the council tax system.
The ombudsman said the council had sent an adjustment notice for the 2017/18 year to the incorrect address it recorded for Ms X’s new home, and the council then obtained and sent a liability order for unpaid council tax at the previous property. However, the council again sent this to the incorrect address that was held for Ms X’s new address.
After this, the council had taken no action until 2021, the ombudsman found.
In August 2021, the council sent a notice confirming it had instructed enforcement agents to the incorrect address. It took three enforcement agents to find Ms X as the address, as stated, was recorded incorrectly.
Ms X reportedly contacted the council in October 2023 saying the enforcement agent put her case on hold until the council investigated the matter.
However, the next month the same enforcement agent delivered a “notice to Ms X overnight”, prompting a complaint from her saying the council acted “improperly”.
The council, in response, apologised to Ms X for telling her incorrectly that it would pause action as the officer she had spoken to could not take this decision.
The council also told her that her debt was accurate and the council also said it would apply to the DWP to have deductions made from Ms X’s pension credit instead.
The council said it had sent Ms X an application for discretionary council tax relief.
Ms X was also informed that just because she had “abandoned” her property without giving notice that doesn’t mean her tenancy ended on that day.
Ms X asked the council to review her complaint in December 2023.
She had told the council she didn’t know she had council tax arrears until July 2023.
The council, on the other hand, admitted that it had recorded Ms X’s new address incorrectly in 2021 and 2023, and accepted that she could not receive letters about the debt and the actions taken.
The council had apologised for this error and corrected the record, the ombudsman said.
The ombudsman added: “The council said because Ms X did not know about the debt, due to it wrongly recording her new address, it would remove all enforcement agent recovery costs as a gesture of goodwill.
“The council confirmed it would recover the debt through an attachment to Ms X’s pension, which would commence shortly.”
Despite this, Ms X told the council she would refer her complaint to the Ombudsman in February 2024, and asked the council to suspend recovery action while this happened – and the council said it had asked the DWP to suspend recovery action for two months.
However, “it said it could not guarantee deductions would not be made from Ms X’s pension, before the DWP could action the suspension.”
In the end, the ombudsman found the council “at fault for incorrectly updating its records” which caused Ms X injustice as because of the council’s errors Ms X could not receive any letters on this issue.
“The council recognised it acted with fault by sending letters to the wrong address”, the ombudsman added.
The ombudsman said: “However, the time taken to contact Ms X, stemming from the council’s incorrect recordkeeping, has caused Ms X uncertainty about her current financial circumstances.
“Ms X said it is more difficult for her to pay the bill now than it would have been at the time. This uncertainty is an injustice.”
The ombudsman called the council to issue a written apology, pay £350 to Ms X for the avoidable uncertainty and distress she experienced, and invite her to apply for discretionary council tax relief.