Council Tax Advice

chris175

Hi All,

I'm just after seeing if anyone can agree that I'm doing the right thing regarding a council tax debt.

To tell the complete story, we moved house in July last year, and my wife contacted the new council to inform them we we're occupying our house as of whatever date it was and could we have a council tax statement sent out to us so we can arrange payment.
Anyway, 2 months later we hadn't had anything so we rang them again, once again there was a promise of a bill but nothing.
2 months on yet again we rang and asked if it had been sent, they had no record of it, and we asked if we could set a direct debit up to start paying, they said without the reference number on our bill no!!!
So again we sat and waited for them. eventually in March 8 months after we moved in, we got a bill, for £700. At last, i thought but there is no way I can afford £700 in one go. So i rang them to arrange a payment scheme over a few months, they said they'd sort it out with the new tax years bill and we could pay off over the next 12 months.

So late March my eagarly awaited 2011-2012 bill arrived but as you'd expect, no mention of the outstanding £700. so i've rang them, and they said i needed to pay it in full now! I explained what I had been previously told and they said they'd look into it.
As of yet i've heard nothing.

So what i've decided to do is to pay my April 1st payment with an extra £200 on top to start covering the debt, if i hear nothing i plan to carry on doing this for the next 3 months to cover it.

Sorry for the long post but i need to get it off my chest!!! Do you reckon the way i've approached it is a good one? I'v registered for an online account and the balance has reduced by the £200 extra i've paid.

[Deleted User]

I cannot comment if what you are doing the right thing or not, my advice would be to:

1) Contact them in writting and send it recorded delivery so that communication is traceable as there will be a paper trail and they cannot deny recieving it/having no knowedge of it

2) Start putting money away every month so that when the bill does finally get sorted you have some/all of it ready to make payment

D9

Culex

3) Remember to save some more money to pay the bailiffs when the idiots at the Town Hall claim you had ignored all requests for payment.

chris175

Culex wrote: »

3) Remember to save some more money to pay the bailiffs when the idiots at the Town Hall claim you had ignored all requests for payment.

Do you reckon thats the way it'll go? despite the fact i've tried and tried to get a bill to start paying in the first place and then also offering and them acceping over the phone (but never sending anything through the post) an amicable way of paying them back.

After all, I've never said I WON'T pay them i've just said I can't pay them all in one go!

RAS

Hi

I would write to the Council and also get hold of your local councillor and explain the sorry story.

Then if they threaten a Liability order, you have the history in place to prevent it or get it halted by the councillor. Otherwise there is a good chance that bailiffs will be used.

Culex

RAS wrote: »

I would write to the Council and also get hold of your local councillor and explain the sorry story.

Then if they threaten a Liability order, you have the history in place to prevent it or get it halted by the councillor. Otherwise there is a good chance that bailiffs will be used.

Chris might also want to contact the local newspaper.

chris175

Cheers for your help all, looking back I'm kicking myself because I always knew i needed to pay it so should have put money aside for it! But with other debts to pay and also christmas and my daughters first birthday I kinda forgot!!

I will phone them again tomorrow and tell them to expect a letter, and also a further £200 (that's whats left in my bank on payday!!) towards the arreers. I will also contact our local couceller, he used to be a teacher at my high school so I do know him, and explain the situation. If however they still decide to refuse to put an envelope addressed to me in the postbox and take it further, i'll get onto our local newspaper.

chris175

Just thought i'd write to finish this thread off!!

I contacted my council and for once they were helpful! I realised that I'd got £400 available balance on a credit card so I have paid the remaining £500 by using the credit card and adding £100 from my bank account.

It's not helped my credit card debt situation, and has put me back a few months, but at least all my debts are now all unsecured (except the mortgage!) and i can rest assured that my income and home contents are safe!!!
Just need to set up a direct debit now so it can't happen again!!

Thanks for all your advice with this I guess i didn't realise how serious it was!

Hannah_10

If you would like some additional help with managing the now higher CC debt then feel free to post a SOA.

chris175

Thanks Hannah_10. I posted one a couple of months ago when I had my LBM, I was going to apply for a DMP but when I did my SOA to my suprise I wasn't as bad as i thought, so I didn't apply!! I just really needed to stop buying rubbish and take control!! So me and the wife did a spending review and listed every penny we spent between pay-days and we've managed to reduce our outgoings by over £100 a month!!

And in a roundabout way even more luck came our way with this years council tax, This years payments are £30 a month lower than I originally budgeted for on my SOA!!
In the near future, i'm hopefully changing my work location so will cut my commuting costs from £300 a month to £50!! Can't wait!!

So my debts currently stand at:

Credit card 1: £1900 (up from £1500 because of the council tax arrers) At this rate will be cleared in 13 months.
Credit Card 2: £2900
Overdraft 1: £4000 (although this is my main account so goes up and down, but is on it's way towards the Black)
Overdraft 2: £1000 (interest free so it is and can remain just sat there until the above is sorted!!)