Council Tax Vultures

robertjake9

I used to work in a Council and was involved in dealing with complaints that reached the Chief Exec's office.

If you look on the website of any Council there will be a section headed complaints, and it will tell you what you need to. If you send off a letter it will go to the relevant department for them to respond to in the first instance. If you are not happy with that response, it will then go through an 'escalation' procedure, and eventually will go up to the Chief Exec's office for one of their staff to deal with. In very persistent cases, the Chief Exec may get involved for final resolution. If that fails, you are referred to the Ombudsman.

Copying the local Cllr into correspondence may help speed things up, but I expect they would only get involved if there have been delays / mishandling (i.e. not at the first stage of the process).

FredWhispers

Councils and HMRC treat people far worse than debt collectors, but never seem to attract bad publicity.Are the press covering this up? Why isnt this on the telly?

DCA's and banks let you go into very lengthy repayment schemes. Councils dont, even if you prove you have no money!

SMB1982

Thanks all for the advice. I have emailed the Assistant Director of Revenues and Benefits using the letter drafted by Hallowitch, as the council website provides his address for complaints. I found his email using Google and have sent a hard copy to the office by special delivery. I received an email from his Secretary this afternoon acknowledging receipt of my email and assurance that the matter will be looked into and a response prepared. I believe if his response is still unsatisfactory, I am required to contact the ombudsman. I am prepared to fight this as far as I can. The way this case has been handled is appalling.

hallowitch

once you get the reply you then go on to make a FORMAL COMPLAINT this is addressed to the CEO if your complaint is not upheld you take it to a stage 2 then a stage 3
if you are still not happy then you take it to the ombudsman


don't sit back and let them take there own sweet time in answering your letters give them 14 days to provide you with information if its a no show then you e-mail every 2nd day until you get it
have a read of the local government ombudsman's website its very informative

http://www.lgo.org.uk/search/?k=bailiffs

SMB1982

Thanks Hallowitch, I will definitely be on their case! I feel better already just doing something about it, even if I don't get the answer I want.

SMB1982

Hi all - I recieved the following response from the council. as you can see, they have passed my contact details on to the bailiffs again - I am livid, how dare they do this - can they do this?? I am disgusted! PLEASE HELP!!

Dear
Re: Council Tax -

Thank you for your email dated 12 June 2013. Your enquiry has been investigated and I can advise you as follows.

I can confirm that a response was sent to you by email on 11 June 2013, in relation to your letter dated 16 May 2013.

It has been noted that this letter did not answer a number of your questions in relation to the liability orders, therefore these are detailed below.
1. Two Liability Orders were granted in your name.
2. The first was granted on 23 May 2007 and has a reference of LO ID 4799258. The second was granted on 24 October 2007 and has the reference of LO ID 4841154.
3. Both Liability Orders relate to the property xxxx.
4. LO ID 4799258 relates to the period 11 October 2006 to 31 March 2007. LO ID 4841154 relates to the period 1 April 2007 to 31 May 2007.
5. LO ID 4799258 was granted for the amount £279.00. LO ID 4841154 was granted for the amount £185.05.
6. The amount currently outstanding is £279.00 and relates to LO ID 4799258.
7. On 4 June 2007 you made a payment arrangement on LO ID 4799258. This was then passed to the bailiffs, Equita for collection on 20 October 2007, as no payments had been received. Equita returned LO ID 4799258 on 3 December 2007 as you were no longer resident at the contact address they held for you. On 4 April 2013 a new contact address was established and a letter was sent to you regarding the arrears outstanding of £279.00.
LO ID 4841154 was passed to Equita for collection on 27 November 2007 and the debt was paid in full.
8. Two payments were passed to this office from Equita. The first payment was for £38.00 paid on 31 January 2008 and the second payment was for £147.05 paid on 9 May 2008. Both payments were credited towards LO ID 4841154.
9. LO ID 4841154 was returned by Equita Bailiffs as settled on 20 June 2008. LO ID 4799258 was returned on 2 December 2008 with a balance of £297.00 outstanding.

Unfortunately, due to the time elapsed from when your account was returned from Equita Bailiffs, we have been unable to access their records to advise you of the information in relation to their costs and bailiffs who dealt with your account. I have therefore forwarded your enquiry to Equita Bailiffs and asked them to respond directly to you.

I trust this clarifies the situation. However, if you require any further assistance with this matter please contact the Customer Service Team at .....................

If you are unhappy with the way we have dealt with your complaint, you can ask us to review it. We will look into your enquiry again and send you a final response within 20 working days of the date we receive your request.

Yours sincerely

SMB1982

hallowitch wrote: »

once you get the reply you then go on to make a FORMAL COMPLAINT this is addressed to the CEO if your complaint is not upheld you take it to a stage 2 then a stage 3
if you are still not happy then you take it to the ombudsman


don't sit back and let them take there own sweet time in answering your letters give them 14 days to provide you with information if its a no show then you e-mail every 2nd day until you get it
have a read of the local government ombudsman's website its very informative

http://www.lgo.org.uk/search/?k=bailiffs

Hi Hallowitch Please help! I recieved the following response from the council. as you can see, they have passed my contact details on to the bailiffs again - I am livid, how dare they do this - can they do this?? I am disgusted! PLEASE HELP!!

Dear
Re: Council Tax -

Thank you for your email dated 12 June 2013. Your enquiry has been investigated and I can advise you as follows.

I can confirm that a response was sent to you by email on 11 June 2013, in relation to your letter dated 16 May 2013.

It has been noted that this letter did not answer a number of your questions in relation to the liability orders, therefore these are detailed below.
1. Two Liability Orders were granted in your name.
2. The first was granted on 23 May 2007 and has a reference of LO ID 4799258. The second was granted on 24 October 2007 and has the reference of LO ID 4841154.
3. Both Liability Orders relate to the property xxxx.
4. LO ID 4799258 relates to the period 11 October 2006 to 31 March 2007. LO ID 4841154 relates to the period 1 April 2007 to 31 May 2007.
5. LO ID 4799258 was granted for the amount £279.00. LO ID 4841154 was granted for the amount £185.05.
6. The amount currently outstanding is £279.00 and relates to LO ID 4799258.
7. On 4 June 2007 you made a payment arrangement on LO ID 4799258. This was then passed to the bailiffs, Equita for collection on 20 October 2007, as no payments had been received. Equita returned LO ID 4799258 on 3 December 2007 as you were no longer resident at the contact address they held for you. On 4 April 2013 a new contact address was established and a letter was sent to you regarding the arrears outstanding of £279.00.
LO ID 4841154 was passed to Equita for collection on 27 November 2007 and the debt was paid in full.
8. Two payments were passed to this office from Equita. The first payment was for £38.00 paid on 31 January 2008 and the second payment was for £147.05 paid on 9 May 2008. Both payments were credited towards LO ID 4841154.
9. LO ID 4841154 was returned by Equita Bailiffs as settled on 20 June 2008. LO ID 4799258 was returned on 2 December 2008 with a balance of £297.00 outstanding.

Unfortunately, due to the time elapsed from when your account was returned from Equita Bailiffs, we have been unable to access their records to advise you of the information in relation to their costs and bailiffs who dealt with your account. I have therefore forwarded your enquiry to Equita Bailiffs and asked them to respond directly to you.

I trust this clarifies the situation. However, if you require any further assistance with this matter please contact the Customer Service Team at .....................

If you are unhappy with the way we have dealt with your complaint, you can ask us to review it. We will look into your enquiry again and send you a final response within 20 working days of the date we receive your request.

Yours sincerely

CIS

Unfortunately, due to the time elapsed from when your account was returned from Equita Bailiffs, we have been unable to access their records to advise you of the information in relation to their costs and bailiffs who dealt with your account. I have therefore forwarded your enquiry to Equita Bailiffs and asked them to respond directly to you.

This bit isn't surprising - Equita's system removes access to closed cases quite quickly and council users cannot see any details of them once this happens.