Council Tax - i dont understand..help me

koe_182

on 22nd August this year we left one rented property (Band A @ £1014.29) and moved into another rented property (Band B @ £1177.28). Anyway we used to pay council tax over 12 months @ £85.00 p/m. We received a Close account statement shortly after moving which stated:

Charge for Period 01 April 2008 -> 26 Aug 2008 = 411.27
Payments received at date of issue = £504.29
Transfers at Date of issue = 93.02

which all seems in order and the 93.02 will be transferred across.

anyway the latest bill which we got on 24th Sept states:

Charge for period 22 Aug -> 31st March 2009 = 716.04
Transfers at date of issue = -93.02

Amount payable by you = £632.02

and now my direct debit part states:

First instalment date 01 nov = 1 x 123.02
4 other instalments due on 1st dec to 01 mar 08 = 4 x 125.00

having said this the council were still took £85.00 on 1st September...so im very confused and £125.00 a month seems a tad large...

is this right? or shouldnt they have took the £85?

i want to pay my bill over 12 months really as it should drop to about £98 but is that not possible in the middle of a year?

please help explain

CIS

The payment of £85.00 was probably run before the account was actually closed on the system - we often have that problem were the accts are not updated in time but the payment will be available to be transferred and offset against your new bill.

The council don't have to allow payments over 12 months, the standard is 10 months (set in legislation) and anything extra is discretionary. Most billing systems are set to the legally required number of instalments and have to be manually adjusted to continue payments to the yr end.

You need to contact the council and ask for the £85.00 to be transferred over and the dd to be spread to march.