No council tax bill for 18 months

[Deleted User]

Hi all,

Firstly - I hope I have the right section here; if not I apologise!

Basically I moved into my flat with my partner around 18 months ago. It was a brand new property and we were the first to live there. I notified the council that we had moved in and they sent a letter stating that the property had not yet been banded and that it would be soon and we would recieve a bill. No bill ever came and I rang the council numerous times to ask about this - each time I was told just to wait and that there was nothing I could do.

So we left it at that - and obviously life goes on and you lose track of things - as far as I was aware I had done my part.

Anyway my partner, on the off chance, went into the council office yesterday to make another enquiry on the matter and spoke to a worker there. They told her that they do not know why we havent recieved a bill (there was no record of my calls either) and that we would be liable to pay the full amount which is around £1600. My partner was spoken down to by the worker there who told her we should of been putting money aside and we should of expected this. I fully appreciate this (and indeed we have saved for it) but for her to be spoken to like this when it is blatantly someone elses !!!!-up I find appalling.

Anyway the outcome, which I find absolutely unbeilevable, is that we will recieve a letter but they do not know when that will be. The competency of these people is beyond me and realistically how can they expect someone just to pay up a huge lump sum when it is their fault that no bill has been issued?

Does anyone have any experience in this kind of matter? What are my rights? Can they force me to pay the money up front or can they add it to future bills bit by bit?

I have made all efforts to contact them, my partner even said to them that if she had not came in they wouldn't even be aware of the problem - they agreed.

Any help/advice is appreciated!

vikingaero

Well you've done the right thing by putting the money aside to pay for it. If and when a bill arrives you could make a formal complaint about the behaviour of the Council. Hopefully this will impact on the salary of someone responsible for the !!!! up.

[Deleted User]

I think I will do that. I terms of my rights though, are they able to request all the money up front? I imagine if my partner and I both did not work, claimed benifits and had 2 children they would not do so.

Chinkle

Something similar happened to us when we moved, told the council three times in writing and still didn't get a bill. Eventually we had a letter saying they tracked us down via land registery (cheeky b's) and we owed 18 months CT. While we didn't disagree with the amount owed, it was the implication that we had tried to avoid paying. I sent them copies of the corrrespondence and it turns out that they had messed up. I didn't get an apology, but they did agree for us to spread the payments.

Send them a letter stating the circumstances, and the rudeness you encountered by one of their staff and given that they created the situation they should help you get back on track by putting a payment plan in place.

molerat

vikingaero wrote: »

Hopefully this will impact on the salary of someone responsible for the !!!! up.

Hey, did you see that, a pig just flew by :rotfl:You should know by now that nobody in the council is actually responsible for anything (apart from collecting their paycheck of course) Being rude is par for the course. People who don't pay their council tax are all theiving scum and should be treated as such (it says so in the training manual). The council not sending a bill, how can that possibly be anybody at the council's fault

lincroft1710

You can complain about attitude of member of staff but I doubt it will result in anything constructive. Pay the amount you have put aside and council should agree payment plan for the remainder owed.

CHW

My thoughts as to why this has happened are that if you moved into a new property, there is a fair chance that the building had not yet been banded- this is nothing at all to do with your Council- although they probably will have notified the Valuation office to inform them that the property was complete (or nearly so).

Banding can take some time to sort out (18 months does sound excessive though) and many of the Councils around here are willing to give out temporary bills based on an estimated banding- giving you the opportunity to start making payments. It's not all that will do this though so again, I'm assuming that yours does not.

Try to remember it's not actually in the best interest of the CT dept to not have you registered and making payments

olly300

I've learnt with companies if nothing happens the first time to put your request in a written letter.

Put a request for a council tax bill in writing sending your letter to the council by recorded delivery. State in the letter the date and times of as many calls as you can remember. You should have phone bills to indicate when you called them.

Most councils will reply to your letter within 10 working days however if you are still not sent a bill in a month escalate up the complaints process.

The next step is normally the Financial Director of the Council. Have a look at your council website for the full complaints process.

Taco

i had the very same problem with my old house, went down to the local office and told them that i was yet to receive an estimate or a bill after 3 months living there....phoned numerous times after that, then, like you...got on with my life.

the next year i got my bill for the forthcoming year, and and a warning letter stating i hadn't paid the previous years bill, they wanted just under £1800 within 2 weeks, which i couldnt pay, and told them so.....asked them if they could spread the debt over a year in which they replied with a very stern NO!, and before i knew it, my debt was then passed on to a sheriff officers debt collection agency, who then accepted £30/month:doh:

so, in the end i ended up with a debt that would take 5 years to pay off, but i phoned the agency about 9 months later and asked for a settlement figure, ended up paying them £1100 in total:)...no wonder the councils are in such a s*it state!!!

scottn

you've got the money put aside which is excellent, other than that you've got to pay it. I'd complain but I wouldn't expect anything more than an apology.

asharon

I had the same problem. When I called to ask for a bill I was told "can you call back and ask someone else because I don't have a clue" Fortunately it only took them 5 months for me but I did hear that you should be able to go onto a payment plan for the outstanding amount. But didn't councils different rules.