Can I charge my council interest for holding onto my money?

tigerminxy

Short version: I've just received a letter from my ex-local council regarding a refund that they owe me for Council Tax I had overpaid (their fault) before I moved from their area. Basically, they're taking ages to refund me my money, so what rights do I have to charge them interest on the credit balance they're holding? If I can't, what can I do at least to register a complaint against them with some independent body?

More details:

I sent a form back on 30th October to get back the money I'd overpaid (due to their front-loading of direct debit payments), and only today received a letter from the council, so it's taken over two months for them to get back to me. Even taking into account the Christmas holidays, this is a terrible response rate.

Even worse, they're stalling on paying me because of some technicality with the fact that the account was in joint names so they need written authority from both account parties. I'm not disputing this rule, it seems sound enough, but what annoys me is that they didn't point this out on the form and have taken so long to get back to me to tell me this.

Knowing my ex-council, they will probably take another month at least before they issue a cheque, so it will be over three months since my initial application before I get the money they owe me.

I'm not one of these people to get all militant about paying Council Tax, I just pay it, but there seems to be a distinct lack of good faith when the Council have to pay the tax back. What gets my goat is that if I'd withheld money from them for three months they'd be threatening all sorts of crap yet when it happens the other way round, we don't seem to have any rights to charge them.

I am basically being punished for my ex-council's inefficiency/deliberate slow coach behaviour to prop up their mismanaged finances, since I will have lost interest on the amount owing. What can I do to get some sort of recognition of that? I know the Inland Revenue pay interest on tax refunds when they're held over a certain length of time so the principle is there.

Avoriaz

You could write and ask for the interest.

If they refuse, pay slowly next year.

Write to them and tell them that you will be delaying next year’s payment for an equivalent amount of time.

tigerminxy

Thanks Avoriaz. Nice idea but I moved away from that council last year, hence they owe me money. I'm looking for a new home and the incompetence I've suffered from them has actually made me refuse to view any houses that falls in their area!

rory41444

:mad: How much are we talking here? If its a significant amount you would be well within your rights to visit the Council offices and demand payment over the counter provided all the paperwork is in place.
I doubt you could charge them interest - you could try but they wouldn't pay it which would lead to even more frustration. Its a pity you don't still live in that area as you could either delay your next payment by an equal period as Avorias suggested or you could deduct an element of interest that you consider to be fair from your next Council tax payment and let them have the bother of trying to sort out whether it is fair or not.
If its not a huge amount and its not worth making a nuisance of yourself on their premises, then I'm afraid you'll have to grit your teeth and wait.
Do keep on at them. Telephone them daily and write to them as well if you can be bothered. They shouldn't be allowed to get away with this.

CIS

you could deduct an element of interest that you consider to be fair from your next Council tax payment and let them have the bother of trying to sort out whether it is fair or not.[/QUOTE

That could backfire - it could potentially cost £50-£60 for a summons for the amounts.

Voyager2002

Write to -- or go and see -- an elected Member (a councillor). They are supposed to represent your interests, and ultimately they are the bosses of everyone who works for the council. A telephone call from a Member will do far more to speed things up than any number of calls that you make yourself.

On a broader note: the fact that you are determined to live outside that Council's boundaries should be deeply shaming for any worthwhile Member. I think you owe it to your (former) neighbours to let a Member know about your experiences, and how they have left you feeling. That is the only way that things will get any better.

Techno

I agree with voyager -I don't know what the poltical set up is in your ex-council area but if it is Cabinet based then a Cabinet member would be the ideal person - failing that ring and demand to speak to the head of service and send a letter of complaint to the corporate complaints dept

nomoneytoday

Assuming you are on the 10 month direct debit, and left before the end of the year, how much do they owe you? I would imagine if its only the equivalent of a month's payment. i.e. the interest on it will be peanuts..
(£200 earns about £8 interest a year, or 66p a month)

tigerminxy

Thanks everyone. I think maybe I should write a letter to a council member to let them know why I moved out of their stinking borough in the first place and why I've ruled out buying a house back there now I'm looking again.

nomoneytoday - yes, the interest is peanuts but it's the principle of the thing. I paid that council (I may as well name and shame it as Croydon) promptly and in a way that was easy for them. The least they could do is pay me back promptly. The fact that they send a cheque instead of simply refunding it back to the bank account they've been debiting is bad enough.

I'm also incredibly annoyed that they do this sneaky thing of sending you a statement of account that shows you're owed money but you have to read the form carefully to realise that you actually have to fill in some paperwork to ask for the money back. Somehow, I think the default assumption should be that anyone who's overpaid does want their money back.

My suspicion is that they're being disingenuous in clouding the process in the hope that people don't realise they have to ask for the refund, so that they can shore up their finances. Making people wait for a cheque also buys them a few more days holding onto people's money. May be peanuts for one person but it soon adds up if you take into account everyone to whom they're delaying payment.

This doesn't even take into account that whenever I wanted any sort of service from them (parking permit, allotment, recycling box, &c.) they were incompetent or slow - usually both.

As you can imagine, I have zero goodwill left for Croydon Council and am in no mood to do them any favours.