missed 2 months council tax, £35 court charge

dmg24

vax2002 wrote: »

If you are ever "summonsed to court" for council tax
When you get to the court, ASK whom is sitting here upon the oath as a magistrate in this room.
You will get some funny looks, but it soon becomes apparent that you are in fact sitting in a room hired by the council at the court and there is no magistrate present and only speaking with council employees, the whole thing is a scam.
You might as well be sat in the boiler room at the sports centre talking to the cleaners.
I Ask this very question, I stood up in the court room and approached the 3 people sitting writing on the bench and asked, who is sitting in this room as a magistrate, the refused to answer, so I shouted, if any magistrate is present in this court room please make themselves known to the court. A old gentleman came over and said, they are not magistrates, they are just council employees, "WHAT I replied, well shouted , then why am I in a court room with 3 people sitting behind the magistrates desk pretending to be magistrates desk ?
An Usher asked me to leave "the court".
I attended the desk and complained that the Magistrates had failed to identify themselves, then I was told... That the council hire the room to arrange council tax payments from the court, So said I I have been billed £28 for a court summons that is not a court, by the court, can I lodge an appeal please, wait here she said, she came back and said thats been a mistake, the charge has been cancelled.
So I rumbled them, no magistrates = no court
apparently it is a huge scam, they apply for a liability order in your absence from a real magistrate in a REAL court once you have left.
Dont fall for it.
I never heard a dickie bird from them again, no liability order, nothing.
Anyone else ever been summonsed to one of these "FAKE courts"
I bet most don't even cotton on.

You have already been told on another thread to stop posting rubbish without checking your facts vax2002, last time you posted this was when someone was being done for fraud! Whilst some areas may have this arrangement, in many others you do go before a magistrate. If anyone was to act in the way you suggest in front of a magistrate, I would expect far worse than being politely asked to leave.

John_Pierpoint

noh wrote: »

I do.
I can't be the only one I]who checks their bank statement monthly for payments collected and not collected[/I.
If my council tax wasn't collected I would notice almost immediately as my available balance would be £138 higher than expected.

I bet you do the same with your credit card.
I bet you are in the minority too.

Personally like most business, if someone wants to give me something for nothing, I cannot be bothered to waste time trying to sort out the inefficiencies of their accounting department.

Unfortunately the local council appears to have the right to force you meet their short deadlines or pay a (fine, penalty what shall we call it?) Just as ordinary business can claim interest.

Funny thing when you do this to a credit/debit card the maximum charged is 12.50 plus interest if I remember correctly.

John_Pierpoint

dmg24 wrote: »

You have already been told on another thread to stop posting rubbish without checking your facts vax2002, last time you posted this was when someone was being done for fraud! Whilst some areas may have this arrangement, in many others you do go before a magistrate. If anyone was to act in the way you suggest in front of a magistrate, I would expect far worse than being politely asked to leave.

Why is the identity of the magistrate a secret?

Personally if I telephone an organisation and the person taking the call says
"Good morning my name if Jenny"
I reply
"Good morning my name is "John Pierpoint" what is your other name".
If I get "We don't give out our surnames" depending on the nature of my call, I would then ask for the full
name of Jenny's boss.
I would eventually get to "This conversation is being recorded for security purposes - perhaps you can give me the name of your managing director".

At this stage "Jenny" is likely to panic and end the call - so Jennie's managing director is likely to get a recorded delivery letter saying I am not prepared to deal with faceless people, not prepared to take responsibility for their actions.

I would expect the same level of responsibility from a Magistrate.

noh

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

......................
I bet you do the same with your credit card.
I bet you are in the minority too.

.

Of course I do the same with my credit card. I always have done. That is the only way to avoid getting into situations like the OP is in.

hcb42

I might not notice if say my magazine company hadn't taken a tenner, but I would notice the £200 council tax not being paid (or indeedy the mortgage and the other "big" bills)

although I do scour down my DD list regularly, to see what will go out that week, so I would quickly spot it that way I guess (as it shows last paid dates)

stone7

vax2002 wrote: »

If you are ever "summonsed to court" for council tax
When you get to the court, ASK whom is sitting here upon the oath as a magistrate in this room.
You will get some funny looks, but it soon becomes apparent that you are in fact sitting in a room hired by the council at the court and there is no magistrate present and only speaking with council employees, the whole thing is a scam.
You might as well be sat in the boiler room at the sports centre talking to the cleaners.
I Ask this very question, I stood up in the court room and approached the 3 people sitting writing on the bench and asked, who is sitting in this room as a magistrate, the refused to answer, so I shouted, if any magistrate is present in this court room please make themselves known to the court. A old gentleman came over and said, they are not magistrates, they are just council employees, "WHAT I replied, well shouted , then why am I in a court room with 3 people sitting behind the magistrates desk pretending to be magistrates desk ?
An Usher asked me to leave "the court".
I attended the desk and complained that the Magistrates had failed to identify themselves, then I was told... That the council hire the room to arrange council tax payments from the court, So said I I have been billed £28 for a court summons that is not a court, by the court, can I lodge an appeal please, wait here she said, she came back and said thats been a mistake, the charge has been cancelled.
So I rumbled them, no magistrates = no court
apparently it is a huge scam, they apply for a liability order in your absence from a real magistrate in a REAL court once you have left.
Dont fall for it.
I never heard a dickie bird from them again, no liability order, nothing.
Anyone else ever been summonsed to one of these "FAKE courts"
I bet most don't even cotton on.

dmg24 wrote: »

You have already been told on another thread to stop posting rubbish without checking your facts vax2002, last time you posted this was when someone was being done for fraud! Whilst some areas may have this arrangement, in many others you do go before a magistrate. If anyone was to act in the way you suggest in front of a magistrate, I would expect far worse than being politely asked to leave.

There appaers to be more than an element of truth in what vax2002 says.

SEE HERE.

There are also umpteen youtube vids of Lawful Rebels converging en masse to expose this whole charade.

Spartacus_Mills

busterkeye wrote: »

looks like getting some costs then because i havent £900+ to spare,

You should have thought of that when you decided to start dodging paying your Council Tax.

jonnyd281

stone7 wrote: »

There appaers to be more than an element of truth in what vax2002 says.

SEE HERE.

There are also umpteen youtube vids of Lawful Rebels converging en masse to expose this whole charade.

And quotes from that bunch of numpties comes up regularly, not paying council tax is a very good way to end up in prison (and still liable for the council tax bill).

CIS

You will get some funny looks, but it soon becomes apparent that you are in fact sitting in a room hired by the council at the court and there is no magistrate present and only speaking with council employees, the whole thing is a scam.

Most councils do so in order to meet with people before the hearing - we do so in my council. The person attending gets to speak with a council officer and discuss the situation and , if they so wish, they can go and speak to the magistrate when the they have the hearing to grant the Liability Orders. The council officials do not replace the magistrate and why would they pretend to ?.

99 times out a 100 people have no wish to dispute the order in front of the magistrate they are attending only because they have been summonsed and want to ensure they have been seen to make the effort to attend at the court.

I Ask this very question, I stood up in the court room and approached the 3 people sitting writing on the bench and asked, who is sitting in this room as a magistrate, the refused to answer, so I shouted, if any magistrate is present in this court room please make themselves known to the court. A old gentleman came over and said, they are not magistrates, they are just council employees, "WHAT I replied, well shouted , then why am I in a court room with 3 people sitting behind the magistrates desk pretending to be magistrates desk ?

So you went in to a room before the hearing and abused the council officials who were there. If you had been civil you would no doubt have been advised which court room the hearing was in and the time so that you could discuss your issues with the magistrate.

If there were no council officials present to try and resolve the issue then you would no doubt complain about their absence.

MonkeyMad

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

I bet you do the same with your credit card.
I bet you are in the minority too.

Personally like most business, if someone wants to give me something for nothing, I cannot be bothered to waste time trying to sort out the inefficiencies of their accounting department.

Unfortunately the local council appears to have the right to force you meet their short deadlines or pay a (fine, penalty what shall we call it?) Just as ordinary business can claim interest.

Funny thing when you do this to a credit/debit card the maximum charged is 12.50 plus interest if I remember correctly.

The Council have the right for immediate payment by Statue so I can't see an issue?

The problem here is with the person who is not ensuring that their legally requred bills are being paid. An option of a direct debit is available and it hasn't gone through(which may be due to the Council ineptness, who cares) so the bill hasn't been paid but the fact remains that it is the name on the bill that has to make sure payments get to the Council. Same as we are all responsible for our own Income Tax, but like to offload it to our employers.

I know what I expect to be paying for most of my bills each month so would notice if one wasn't going out. Its what we call a budget and is the way that normal people avoid spending money they don't really have.

But that would involve some level of responsibility on the OPs part wouldn't it?