Council Tax issue

Bodminman

Helo

Me and the wife have just moved to Suffolk from Manchester. In fact my wife has been here since the beginning of August and I came down approx 2 weeks ago.

Anyway, back in August my wife filled out the DD form for the council tax, accidentally ticking the box indicating that she would like to pay the CT in two installments. (April & Oct) On the 25th Sept and 25th Oct, the council took 2 payments of £350 for the CT.

My wifes bank statements each month only go up to the 24th and she doesn't receive her statements until about the last day of the month. Therefore by the time she received the statement covering the 25th Sept, the second payment had already been taken. So we were too late to query anything.

I have contacted the council to say that this was an error and that my wife should have ticked the pay monthly box. With this in mind could you please deduct what CT is due and then re-instate the DD on a monthly basis. The council said that as they had acted on the signed instructions given, and the fact that they sent us a statement saying when the payments were to be taken (which my wife denies ever receiving and if she had she would have been straight on the blower) then there is nothing they can do!

Is there anything we can do? In a nutshell, all our chrismas savings have now gone to the council!

Please advise if we can do anything!

Many thanks
Cameron

Valli

Think you missed a trick there anyway - because, for a while, as the only adult there she should have claimed a 25% discount on single adult occupancy (assuming you have no grown up kids, elderly parents etc).
And were you paying full CT on the property you were in?

geordie_joe

Bodminman wrote: »

Is there anything we can do?

Just cancel the DD, ring the council saying you are changing banks and would like a new form. Then fill it in and send it back. Keep a copy of it JIC they reinstate the old 2 payments DD.

Bodminman

geordie_joe wrote: »

Just cancel the DD, ring the council saying you are changing banks and would like a new form. Then fill it in and send it back. Keep a copy of it JIC they reinstate the old 2 payments DD.

We have now paid the council tax up to April 09. What I want to know is, can we claim back the over paid tax and pay it back via monthly DD.

We've got zilch dosh now for xmas!

Thanks
Cameron

daveboy

In a nutshell the answer is surely no.

The council are correct, they acted on signed instructions.

"Accidentally ticking the box" indeed. Next time I am sure she will read what it says and check properly.

You may find that the statement the council refers to could be the original bill (mine says how much to be paid on the first of each month). They won't send two out unless their is a change such as the 25% discount.

dmg24

Bodminman wrote: »

We have now paid the council tax up to April 09. What I want to know is, can we claim back the over paid tax and pay it back via monthly DD.

We've got zilch dosh now for xmas!

Thanks
Cameron

No, you can't. You made an agreement to pay by this method, so they were entitled to take the money. Had you noticed after the first payment, they may have been able to cancel the second and allowed you to change the arrangement. It is just unfortunate that your bank statement arrived too late for you to notice. Perhaps you could set up online banking so you can have more control over these things in future?

(Crossposted with daveboy!)