HELP! Anyone. Council Tax nightmare.

Naf

There's some similarities to this thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3239442

Basically I'm livid with the way I'm being treated by the local council and I want to know if anyone has had any success when complaining, any suggestions how I can best approach them or just any good advice.

Last year I ended up with arrears on my council tax bill due to unemployment, benefit confusion, delays and some of my own fault I'll admit. When the new year's bill came in (being '10/'11) I made an arrangement with them and all was well. I specifically included in my letter that my wife was expecting our second that August and so the payment schedule I had agreed was only 'till then and would be reviewed once my benefits had been readjusted; so far as I was concerned this was all fine. So when my payments went awry mid-July I contacted them and explained that now was the time, and I would be reviewing the payments as soon as their benefit department could reassess my entitlement (I also needed to wait for Tax credits to do the same first). I received a default notice, and very shortly after a court summons. I took these into their contact centre and spoke to an obnoxious woman who treated me like scum and told me it was just going to go to court, end of. Naturally the court found in their favour (its not like I was contesting it anyway) and so they immediately applied an attachment of earnings.

I got very worked up at this point, wrote a very angry complaint and ended up dealing directly with the head of collections. Obviously my letter explained that I believed I had kept entirely to my end of the agreement, and just wanted to get a new arrangement in place. I was offering to pay them more than they would be getting from the attachment anyway. He declined and told me to call again come February and he would reconsider removing it based on a new arrangement for the new year. I was so angry but realised I had no choice; councils believe they are outside the law and can do whatever they please; their service is appalling because they know that we as consumers have no option but them so they don't need to put any effort into keeping us happy.

February, I called back, made a new arrangement to start in April alongside my new Council Tax payments. Then the budget came along and ruined it, my Tax Credits changed and therefore so did my benefits and my new year's Council tax payment schedule. Fortunately (maybe) this all came through before my first payments were due, but late enough that my first Council Tax payment got bumped back to May 1st. Called the manager right back up and made a new arrangement based on my new benefits income, and agreed with him that it should start right alongside my new Council Tax payments. Because my payment schedule was for 9 payments, but the arrears would take longer to clear we agreed that I would continue to pay the same total after this year's bill was paid. But this could not be input to the computer this way so he told me that the agreement I got through the post might not match exactly what we had discussed, but not to worry as he had included everything in the notes. The agreement didn't match up, but as he'd said I didn't worry about it.

So, as agreed, two payments left my account last month (and they've confirmed receipt), yet I received a letter stating that I had defaulted on the arrangement, then another stating that they had AGAIN applied an attachment to my employer. I wrote straight back to them explaining and asking what they thought I'd done wrong. It took them three weeks to respond (because of bank holidays; royal wedding & may day; they claim this is within their 10 working day window, but I make it 11) and although they wrote back saying that 'under the circumstances' they were prepared to lift the attachment even though I had breached the agreement, because they had taken so long it still came out on the attachment anyway.

So I visited them today, ended up speaking with the same rude, disinterested woman as last year who yet again treated me like something disgusting on the sole of her shoe that just needed to be wiped of and got rid of asap. She refused to accept what I said about the agreement, the manager I dealt with is apparently on holiday yet she knows he has no recollection of arranging a different date with me than they're basing all this on. Fortunately the attachment is removed, and payments have been sorted, but I want an apology for how they've treated me, and really need them to write to my employer to say that applying this attachment was an error on their part, not mine. Working in a bank, deliberate mis-handling of personal finances is gross misconduct, potential dismissal. I haven't done this, but its making it look like I am as far as HR/payroll are concerned...

Any ideas?

colacubes

As awful as this sounds and I believe you kept them informed all along, they will just argue that they did not agree to the arrangement you set with them and unless you had anything in writing from them confirming they were happy, they know they can ride roughshot and just go to court.

Best way is to grit your teeth, dont get annoyed with them or they will just switch off and in future record all calls to them for record. If you speak to them in person in advance write a letter of proposal like you originally did verbally and write on it if you have any reason to disagree with my offer please contact me and get the employee to sign for receipt. Then you cover yourself and have a paper trail.

If you want your apology of course write in your complaint. Glad to hear you are getting there though now and have sorted out payments etc....