Council Tax Confusion

DarkConvict

That is good news, and to be honest what i was expecting to hear.

The council system has made a mistake and put all the funds into the wrong account. Either way you do not need to pay out more money.
The council will either shift the money to the account to clear the arrears, or as above send it back as an overpayment. Then you just send that overpayment back aimed at the correct account!

sara86pink

Oooh I do hope that happens! (this is what I would think should happen)

That means I will have an extra £300 in my account which my old landlord gave me and I was going to use it to put towards my holiday in 2 months and credit card but I thought I would have to pay council tax instead.

I really wish work werent so strict so I could call them this afternoon and get it cleared now rather than having to wait until Monday!

DarkConvict

I wouldn't worry, the council have the money and have identified the mistake.

A weekend will not make a difference, even if they took out a liability order you could contest it as it was a council administrator error. You paid as expected

Are your local council offices open on a Saturday morning?

sara86pink

Ok I shall try to be patient then. I just over worry and think that maybe something else has happened and the lady I spoke to got it all wrong but maybe I should just a bit more trusting and optimistic.

The offices arent open Saturdays, infact their opening hours dont really fit in with my free time at all so looks like I shall have to do telephone communication from now on!

Marisco

I think that goes for all council offices Sara, they should be open on Saturdays, if only mornings, as that is when most people are off!! And don't forget - not all glasses are half empty, some are half full;)

Fiddlestick

DarkConvict wrote: »

All tenants are liable for council tax, so you should be able to pay what you owe and they will request the council tax to be paid by the others.

Council tax is joint and several, so the OP would still get chased along with everyone else for the remainder.

What she COULD do is pay the entire outstanding amount and then request this off her ex-flatmates.

If they refuse to pay she can take them to court.

Marisco

Hi Fiddlestick, I think Sara's problem is solved, but for future reference, if 4 (or whatever number) people share a house and one leaves and pays his/her share of the council tax - to the council - and the others don't pay, does that mean he/she can still be hounded to pay again? Unless I've misunderstood your post:o

sara86pink

I managed to call them back to say I have the bank statements showing the payments and they asked for me to post them so have just done that (1st class recorded) and she also looked at the other account linked to the arrears (where we were paying £117 for the current bill) and no payments have been made to that account either.

So... it looks like all the payments I have made via the automated service havent reached any of my accounts.

She seemed quite confident that this will get resolved and that all payments will be updated so maybe they are used to this problem. Fingers crossed!

Marisco

Hi Sara, I hope you photocopied all the statements;) They probably are used to it - our council are forever "losing" paperwork, a friend of mine's mum was told she owed £800 in rent arrears, but when this was challenged it turned out she was owed £1,500 in over payments:eek: It was something to do with Tax Credits!! Now they've got your "paperwork" I'd just wait and see what they say now.

sara86pink

Dont worry Marisco I made copies of everything now and keeping it in my nice keep safe box at home so I can keep track of it!

Just have to sit tight and wait and see... I'm gonna put the spare cash in my separate account just incase something does go wrong because the last thing I want to do is go and spend it all!