Local Authority Council Tax Duty of Care

[glensim]

Hi,

I am trying to find what government legislation will address the the duty of care and competency that is required of a local authority; particularly with respect to council tax.

In my case, we were granted an exemption by a local authority that was overturned almost a year later and we have been assessed a tax in retrospect. Through the complaints process, that has now been exhausted and will go to the ombudsman, the tax authority has displayed failures of duty and incompetence that any commercial organization could not withstand. Apart from the emotional distress involved (this is related to a bereavement) we have suffered financial damages of over £6000.

[PallasAthena]

Why don't you tell us what has happened and how you have calculated £6,000 of financial damages? There's no simple answer to your question.

[glensim]

A family member passed away. Probate was granted in December.

It is important to keep in mind that the two locations, the family/Administrators residence, and the deceased residence, are at some distance apart (across the country).

During February the Opening Hearing into the Inquest was held and the Administrators were also dealing with problems at the property. They did not return to their home until mid-February.

On their return they found that the Letters of Administration had arrived. This was the first time they learned that grant of probate had been given in December. If you have ever dealt with HMCTS Probate, it is impossible to find out what is happening with a case. I tried to find out for months without success.

Very soon after, in early March, the Administrators received a statement of exemption from the council for another year.

The Administrators accepted this statement as binding. They then made decisions as to the disposal of the property that had financial implications.

We had no knowledge as to whether a decent price could be achieved or whether the house could even be sold. This property is in a different part of the country from ours. The decision was taken, on the basis that there would be no taxation for the upcoming year, that the best interests of the beneficiaries would best be served to prepare the property for either let or sale. This decision ultimately led to the property being rewired, being made to comply with the new fire regulations, etc. The cost was in excess of £6000. These expenditures were not primarily to get a better sales price, but to comply with the new regulations associated with rentals.

Had we known that the exemption was issued in error and that tax would have been assessed from June, we would have just tried to sell the property with minimal expense. It would have gone on the market in March.

It is irrational, when a statement of exemption is received, to think that the Administrators would challenge it. It is rational, therefore, to consider that the Administrators would act on it which is what we did.

Looking back at the situation, the council will say at that time that they did not know that probate had been granted. But neither did the Administrators. The Administrators assumed that the council were exercising their absolute right of discretion, as identified in Section 13A of the LA Act 1992.

The council may have a duty to go back and try to correct this error. But the error has had financial consequences.

This is the issue.

Additionally, we never would have expected to find ourselves in such a situation. However, the Council has been dealing with these situations for decades on a daily basis. One must ask therefore, who is the expert in this relationship? Who has acted rationally?

I have since learned that there is a national probate database that has been in place for years. The council could have checked this before issuing a statement in error. It takes about 30 seconds. They should not have issued the statement in the first instance if it was in error.

There are a lot of other issues, sloppy record keeping, ambiguous information, etc. I also believe that they are systematically breaching the intent of the LA Act 1992 but that is my interpretation.

[efpom]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legitimate_expectation

[PallasAthena]

I'm not a lawyer so I'm not going to offer an opinion on whether you have a legal case against the council but I suspect you would have difficulty convincing a court that the £6k the Estate spent on the house "being rewired, being made to comply with the new fire regulations, etc ...to comply with the new regulations associated with rentals" was 'financial damages' suffered by the Estate. It seems to me it was an investment in improvements to Estate property to comply with statutory duties for letting and/or make it more saleable for the Estate's benefit.

"I have since learned that there is a national probate database that has been in place for years. The council could have checked this before issuing a statement in error. It takes about 30 seconds". I don't know the CT exemption policy of this particular council or how having Probate/Letters of Administration is relevant, but it isn't the council's duty to seek out information about Probate. It is the property owner's responsibility (ie the Administrator's) to provide relevant information to the council. (Incidentally the database wouldn't have been free for the council to access, assuming you mean this one: www.gov.uk/search-will-probate )

It's not obvious from your post that the council have made an error. Have they acknowledged making an error or is that just your opinion?

Have you made a complaint to the council under their formal complaints policy? And if that is unsuccessful take it to the Local Government Ombudsman. That wouldn't prevent you going to court after taking those steps if they didn't give you the result you want.

[PallasAthena]

ADDING TO MY POST #5 ABOVE

Apologies, I didn't spot that in your first post on the thread you said you had gone through the council's complaints procedures and were now going to the Ombudsman.

So during the council's internal complaints procedure have they admitted to any errors?

[glensim]

There have been apologies but no admission of errors. This apology was not related to the statement issued in March, however, it was related to the chaotic state of their communication and by implication, their record keeping. I have sent them correct information and they have returned to me wrong information, as if they had never read what I have sent them. This has happened repeatedly.

This is why I have asked if there is any standard of care of competence identified in law as to Local Authorities. I thought there might be something in the Localism Act or some of the other acts that underpin the powers of Local government. So far I've turned up nothing.

This is the website that is an interface to the Grant of Probate records for England and Wales. It is free to anyone and has been around at least since 2019, probably earlier.

https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/

I stumbled across it recently, but I question why all local authorities are not using it. They deal with these issues day in and day out and there is no reason why this could not be an automated process.

[PallasAthena]

The cost in itself is not the issue, my point is that councils don't use the probate search site because it isn't their responsibility to search this information out themselves. It's the property owner's responsibility to notify the council of relevant information.

The site you link is the same one I linked (mine links to the first page, yours to the second page). It's only free to search for whether the probate record/will exists. If you then want to get a copy to see what it says it costs £1-50.

[Manxman]

While councils have a duty to act fairly I don't think they have a "duty of care" in this sort of situation.

Even if there were - and the council had breached it - surely the only loss in this case is the loss of the council tax exemption rather than the £6000?

I'd have thought that - as has already been said - anyone would view the £6000 expenditure as a necessary and prudent investment to get the best return from the property for the beneficiaries, whether by sale or by letting it out.


[Edit: even if the council had made an error it wouldn't necessarily be unfair or a breach of duty]