Council tax - under what conditions can payment be delayed/not payed?

aquariangrrl

Our council tax is well over £100 per month and this week they have not collected any of the rubbish in our block of flats. The rubbish has been piling up and is spilling all over the pavement. It is disgusting and a health hazard. Are there any clauses in the council tax contract which allows you to delay payment if the council do not fulfill their half of the contract such as collecting refuse or gritting the roads? They only have to collect it once a week and it seems they can't even do that for the £££ we pay them! Such a waste of money :mad:!

Fire_Fox

I typed up a long helpful reply, but actually I think you are being completely unreasonable. Do you know/ care how many houses and how many miles of road are in your district? No doubt the council is short-staffed at present, there are job freezes all over the public sector due to the economic climate, and employees struggling to get into work due to the weather conditions. :rolleyes:

anamenottaken

aquariangrrl wrote: »

Our council tax is well over £100 per month and this week they have not collected any of the rubbish in our block of flats. The rubbish has been piling up and is spilling all over the pavement. It is disgusting and a health hazard. Are there any clauses in the council tax contract which allows you to delay payment if the council do not fulfill their half of the contract such as collecting refuse or gritting the roads? They only have to collect it once a week and it seems they can't even do that for the £££ we pay them! Such a waste of money :mad:!

People who live there should take some responsibility for preventing the "health hazard".
This is a short week - when is the regular time for collecting from your block of flats?
Have you noticed there has been some adverse weather conditions too? So that it may probably be sensible to keep the collection lorries off the road when (round here at least) even at the best of times they always get in the way of traffic trying to get people to work.

McKneff

Be very careful if you enjoy paying your CT over 10 or 12 months.

If you miss or make a late payment you forfiet the benefit of paying in installments.

If yu look on the terms and conditions they can cancel this and demand full payment for the year.

Purpletopaz

Hi, No there are no exceptions for not paying council Tax, you will probably find its a tiny amount of the council tax which goes on refuse collecting. Also as pointed out they may not be working on the day of your usual collection, as it is christmas and they are entitled to holiday too!

If my rubbish was such a mess I would clean it up myself.

You could check your local authority website to see if your collection is delayed due to the refuse collectors having 2 Days bank holiday!

jennifernil

We pay over £300 x 10 per year, it takes us 4 weeks to fill our wheelie bin, we only got our road gritted today for the first time.......can we stop paying/reduce our payments too??!!

(only kidding!)

CIS

There is nothing in the council tax regulations regarding withholding payment due to non provision of services. Any issue with the non-provision of a service needs to be raised seperately with the relevant department.

In the council tax regs there is no statement with regards to any services provided by the council in return for payment - as far as the regs are concerned you pay and the council dont have to provide anything in return as its only a method of funding and not a seperate service contract.

Any sevices provided are defined seperately under the statutory service provisions which apply to the local authority.

AJ1982

I like how you are more concerned with saving money than health and safety, as you clearly point out its a health hazard, I also like how you posted this on Boxing Day...

John_Pierpoint

If you do get a really bad service from your local council plus no response from the "officer" responsible, then complain to you local councillor - did you bother to vote?

If that fails you can set up a residents' party and campaign against the political games players infesting your local council; alternatively you can complain, giving full details of everything that happened, to the Local Authority Ombudsman. If you have a justified complaint you will eventually get a modest amount of compensation and your councillors will have to vote to pay it to you.

It is not an easy road to travel but you do have a solution.

leontubrok

In other words, just keep paying your tax, keep quiet and when u see the collectors sat in the pub after their half days work of bad collecting, thank them. afterall thats what this country is built on, crap service and high tax

CIS

The collection of council tax has no bearing on the service you receive - the complaint you have is a seperate issue which involves the environmental service dept.