Just received first council tax bill for whole period 2004-2008

dmg24

firesidemaid wrote: »

i may be wrong here (so don't all jump on me at once:rolleyes: ) but can they really bill you for all that time or will some of it have become non-billable? (this is the case with water rates as i found out - i was paying, just not enough).

Yes, they can.

meester

sooz wrote: »

If you do this, the next letter from them will be a court summons.

You are the one who lived in a property for 4 years without making any attempt to pay your council tax.

I think that they are being rather reasonable allowing you to pay in installments at all.

how are you supposed to pay any tax if there is no bill, no rating, and have been told by the landlord that the council have been duly notified but the council have taken no action? They're responsible for issuing the bills, not me.

dmg24

meester wrote: »

how are you supposed to pay any tax if there is no bill, no rating, and have been told by the landlord that the council have been duly notified but the council have taken no action? They're responsible for issuing the bills, not me.

They are responsible for issuing the bills, but you are responsible for ensuring that you pay your Council Tax, even if that means you chasing up the council.

If they did have to pursue it through the courts, your inaction will definitely go against you.

frannyann

I had a similar problem years ago on a new build, with no bill for ages. It won't help you now but for others, we contacted the council and asked what the houses on the next estate were valued at and paid that amount each month getting a reciept each time. Bit of a faff as the council office each time said "where's your bill" to which we were saying "we don't have one yet" they then were saying don't pay until you get the bill/no account number etc etc. But we carried on because the estate was planned to take a few years to complete and we didn't want to be in the position of owing loads of money. Therefore once the bill did arrive 18 months later we were able to show them we could be creditted with payment.. (I know proper MSE way would have been saving account etc but we were very young with new baby and were terrified of 'debt' in any form)

sooz

meester wrote: »

how are you supposed to pay any tax if there is no bill, no rating, and have been told by the landlord that the council have been duly notified but the council have taken no action? They're responsible for issuing the bills, not me.

And in 4 years it never crossed your mind to ONCE call and ask when your bill would arrive?

whatatwit

meester wrote: »

I do wonder at the logic that possesses them to send a bill for the current year when they have an address for me that is entirely different. At a previous address I received a council tax enquiry form to ask about move-in dates and so on, so I am not sure why they have simply decided to send out an unadorned bill for thousands of pounds without any correspondence, on the basis of what I assume to be credit record data.

Is the address for which the bill has raised shown on the bill?
I have an empty property on which I am liable to pay council tax, but the correspondence address is where I actually live and also pay council tax (same council)
It sounds as though the council still presumes that you are responsible for the Council tax at the property.
Advise them of your date of leaving the property and you will have to estimate the date you became responsible for it.

meester

sooz wrote: »

If you do this, the next letter from them will be a court summons.

In my experience if you fail to pay your bill on time they end a reminder with a warning that if you fail to pay again you will lose the right to pay by installments within that calendar year, and the full amount will become payable immediately.

If you subsequently forget again on a later payment they will demand full payment of the outstanding balance.

dmg24

meester wrote: »

In my experience if you fail to pay your bill on time they end a reminder with a warning that if you fail to pay again you will lose the right to pay by installments within that calendar year, and the full amount will become payable immediately.

If you subsequently forget again on a later payment they will demand full payment of the outstanding balance.

As you have not paid CT for four years, your experience will be rather outdated!

sooz

meester wrote: »

In my experience if you fail to pay your bill on time they end a reminder with a warning that if you fail to pay again you will lose the right to pay by installments within that calendar year, and the full amount will become payable immediately.

If you subsequently forget again on a later payment they will demand full payment of the outstanding balance.

'On time' would have been 4 years ago for the first £1750;)

flower7

Do contact the council, I assume you are paying council tax for your new place. Try and explain to the council that you are already paying a bill and need smaller installements to pay the old debt off. Tell them how long you were actually at the old address and get them to adjust the figure if it is wrong. If you don't contact them and discuss it they will come after you for the whole amount, no discussion and they will add costs to the debt.

Good luck