council rent office

Anthillmob

or whatever they call themselves.

as i dont return to work from extended m/l / sick leave until 20 sept. i have been paying £300 a month rent in dribs and drabs (which is what we always pay, which is over the odds of what we should pay each month anyway (used to keep us in credit until i got no pay and we used the £500 credit to pay the rent for a month and a bit).

and for the past 2 months i have been getting threatening letters. to which i have responded to all and my neighbourhood manager has not seemed the least bit interested but 'made a note on the system'.

atm our arrears is £300 of which i am paying £200 tomorrow.

anyway (if you are still with me) i receive yet another letter today, this one begins with the words 'i am writing to you as you have not reponded to my previous letter'

BULL!!!!

everytime they waste a tree by sending me a letter i call them a rack up my phonebill.

so i called my neighbourhood manager on the direct line given in the letter only to speak to a female colleague who wouldnt let me get a word in edgeways. accused me of not paying any rent for the past 6 weeks (which was later proved a lie by my neighbourhood manager when i finally spoke to him). she also assumed that i was a single mother and asked why i hadnt claimed income support now that i have a child :mad:

HOW VERY DARE YOU

and then when i said i had a partner who worked and lived with me she told me a big fat lie and said i could claim income support anyway in my own right.

I CANT YOU DUMB !!!

everytime i tried to explain to her that if she actually looked at the system and my previous logged conversations she would talk all over me and got very narky and patronising.

then she said 'oh wayne is off the phone now' and put me through to him.

i asked who i had just spoken to and he replied 'my colleague' (no !!!! sherlock) and then he was just as bad.

i explained that atm i am paying what i can and am only staying at most £100 in arrears which will be depleted once i go back to work at the end-ish (20th) of this month.

he then said there is nothing he can do about these letters. well if they are signed by him then surely he can do somethibng as i dont appreciate threats all the time. especially threats that lie i havent spoken to him.

believe me we have letters similar to this at work that are pre-written but YOU CAN amend them if you copy and paste.

anyways, the next letter i will receive will be a notice to quit.

:rotfl:

explained if it even did go as far as court (which it wouldnt) they would have to rehouse me anyway.

then i asked him what the councils stance was on those with arrears over £1000 and he said to me 'every case is looked at upon its own merits'



so i owe them £100 and get threatening letters yet the scum and scuzzers and maybe some nice people too, have thousands in arrears but theyre allowed to because they arent me!

i am fuming!

especially at the assumption of me being a single mum.

:mad: :mad: :mad:

dont worry i will complain. this post isnt really much than a place to vent and get down in writing what i need to before making my complaint.

Melissa22_Mum

:rotfl: Oh I love your threads and posts they always cheer me up! sorry I know this may not be helpful at the moment as you are angry!

The bloody coucil are all the same, if you "owe" something your the devil incarnate, if they owe something it was a mistake beyond their control. Your lucky if you get that excuse, normally it's just a letter telling you the correction of their mistake, no apology, normally Mr Jack Shiiit

Hope it gets sorted, at least you have proof and the truth on your side which is invariably the case!



I have been told in the past from a member of the rent office team who hand delivered a letter, that these threatening letters are just to put the frighteners on you and rarely go to court, especially when they're lies!, as long as you are paying something there isn't much to worry about. As long as you don't take the pish that is! ( I wouldn't want to be giving out bad advice now would I??)

Anthillmob

thankyou. and no offences taken in any way.

as you say, when they owe you you never get.

when my sister brought her council house recently she was £150 in credit. have they given it back to her? have the bollox

Anthillmob

i emailed my complaint at 10.30 this morning and had a response with an hour! the email was only to tell me that it has been passed to the complaints officer though. but at least it has been dealt with extremely quickly.

Mark7799

Are you sure it wasn't an automated response:D

Anthillmob

no but it was very official. no dear miss t***s and he didnt evn sign off. lazt !!!!!!.

hjb123

Oh dear. What a hassle you have been having! There is no way that that person should have spoken to you like that, if I was in your situation I would have complained too.

Hope you get something sorted soon - though do the words 'council' and 'efficient' and 'quick response' actually go together?

Anthillmob

hjb123 wrote:

Hope you get something sorted soon - though do the words 'council' and 'efficient' and 'quick response' actually go together?

they do when im at work. i speak to claimants for HB/CTB on a daily basis (or will when i return to work on the 20th).

i would never speak to anyone like that, even those with learning difficulties.

do not assume is my motto.



once some woman working in abbey national said to me 'what benfit do you receive'. i was livid. epsecially as she had my details up infront of her shopwing i worked. just because i had a 'basic account'.

i got 2 bottles of wine off them as an apology :beer:

Jnelhams

Council's are notorius for cocking-up the Rent and Benefits, I used to work for a Housing Charity and our social workers spent more time in the local council office having out with them over scared little old ladies, and vulnerable clients than anything else!

Look the best thing from my experience is to keep a spreadsheet showing when each weeks rent is due, the amount, the date you paid and the amount. Each time you get a rent assesment letter make sure you calculate the revised rent back from the effective date (a lot of people forget that) and when the Council get shirty let them take you to court, produce that spreadsheet along with the rent book/receipts and I tell you know there is nothing more satisfying on this green Earth than watching the Judge tell the idiot from the Council to go forth and multiply, and pay your costs (travel, loss of earnings etc). I loved it going to court for our clients, then coming back and telling little old lady she was getting a letter of apology and some pennies back! Life is sweet!

bobsa1

To give a view point from the council point of view, first you should not have been spoken to like this or told incorrect information. Complain long and hard.

However, we do chase small arrears just as hard as large arrears, we are more likely to recover a small sum & sort out someones problems when rent arrears are at a low level than when they reach a higher amount.

When you pay in an irregular pattern ( for whatever reason) it can be hard to work out when you are next likely to pay and as you say you currently owe £300 (although I know you intend to pay some soon) this is quite a high arrear.

If they have not recorded your conversations and offers to pay correctly ask for them to confirm the arrangement back to you in writing. This is standard practice in my office.

Unfortuately when a case(not yours I hasten to add) does reach eviction the Council does not have a duty to rehouse, in most cases, even when children are involved as a homeless decision is made and most are found intentionaly homeless.

What I would say however is that you appear to have had a bad experience and deserve an apology.

Jnelhams

Don't forget SHELTER and the Citizens Advice can help sort out the Council for you.