Land and Property Service Complaints

oohgreta

Greentea wrote: »

Is your complaint because they didnt send out a bill before now and so you dont think you should pay it? I have had experience with the rates office often taking 2 years before getting an accurate bill, but I have always assumed you would still legally owe that amount if you were living in the property? Regardless of their inepitidue in sending out bills.

We dutifully paid our rates in the last 2 properties we lived in ... and have been trying to pay rates for this property (though money saved towards it had to be spent elsewhere) I understand that there is a legal obligation to pay rates but think it is unfair for the LPS to leave a family in £1000s debt due to their own incompitence and then hound them for it!!
And Cathy2702 ...I cut a very very long story short and you may have noticed that i said we did ring them, on occasion but I may not have said we rang when we recieved both district valuers letters (which don't actually have ANYTHING on them re: contacting the office)... what i didn't state was the various replies we got which satisfied us at the time ie bill being processed etc. I may have been quick to contact NIE when we moved in but they were also quick to bill us for the service they provide. Also, I did state that we paid back a substantial amount of the arrears.

wifeforlife

oohgreta wrote: »

We dutifully paid our rates in the last 2 properties we lived in ... and have been trying to pay rates for this property (though money saved towards it had to be spent elsewhere) I understand that there is a legal obligation to pay rates but think it is unfair for the LPS to leave a family in £1000s debt due to their own incompitence and then hound them for it!!
And Cathy2702 ...I cut a very very long story short and you may have noticed that i said we did ring them, on occasion but I may not have said we rang when we recieved both district valuers letters (which don't actually have ANYTHING on them re: contacting the office)... what i didn't state was the various replies we got which satisfied us at the time ie bill being processed etc. In regards to this I would bet money on he letters being from the valuation office and not the rates but this is a fault in that senior management allow the 2 to seem to operate under 1 umbrella but run them separately it's a disgrace I may have been quick to contact NIE when we moved in but they were also quick to bill us for the service they provide. Also, I did state that we paid back a substantial amount of the arrears.

I can only go with the info you provide and the experience I have. I was obviously very lucky as I moved into a new build on 4th Feb 2010, I contacted both the valuation and rates office separately the week prior to moving in and on completion and I had a bill in the May of that year, I knew what the valuation was so could calculate the bill and put the money away for it so not to have arrears. I didn't expect it to be done that quickly as although I worked there I know how the system and procedures can let the staff and public down.

Again oohgreta I do wish you well with it, and will certainly help with any responses you need to draft to them, feel free to pm at anytime

kyral

cathy2702 wrote: »

Kyral your situation is different because you were in receipt of a benefit and then no longer required it, there is obviously evidence showing you contacted either the Housing benefit team or the rates office and therefore your bill reduced accordingly, congratulations.

Goodluck oohgreta it's no secret on this site that I have worked in LPS and help people on a regular basis so please feel free to pm me if I can help you or help you understand how things work, just because I don't agree with things I would always help to save money were possible and legal.

Thank you, you are right, there was evidence of the amount of times I had contacted them and the fact that I had paid my rates up until I unexpectedly recieved a bill for zero obviously helped my case.

oohgreta

kyral wrote: »

If you receive bad service generally you make a complaint, that is all I did just like the OP is doing.

Thank you ... This is especially true since we are still recieving bad service after making the initial complaint.

oohgreta

NAR wrote: »

You knew you had to pay the rates and should have set aside the money to pay your legitimate bill. Wangling out of payment due to administrative error is pathetic. Hopefully this will come back on you soon (karma) - why should I and other taxpayers pick up your tab? :mad:

We're a tax paying family thank you very much ... and I can give you some genuinely pathetic examples of people ripping off us tax payers. I have enough positive karma to off set our complaining .... maybe the fact that the police have let us down on a couple of occasions or that our bins aren't emptied on a regular basis during winter etc etc will off set this bad karma that you wish upon me too!! Actually, I tell you what, i'll stop complaining and we can all let Government Departments treat people as they wish even though it's our taxes that pay the wages of these 'managers' who run them so inefficiently.