Council Tax - Council sent court letter

gazzebo69

Hi. ViolaLass.

Yes I could, if I knew he needed to, but there in lies the problem, he just does not ask, and he assumed that once he had sorted these cards over the phone then he would not need to come see me to do anything.


Am guessing if they said on the phone that there is no other way to do this other than to pay via the internet then he would have give me a call, but the situation with the cards said he did not need to bother me.

I`m guessing council tax can be a little more tricky to sort out if you have rented accomodation as regards to your own home where property is constantly in and out of habitation. Maybe this is the oppotunity for the council to up their game, change their process for those people who want to pay rather than accuse them of not wanting to pay.

Regards
Gazzebo.

gazzebo69

Folks.

Here is an update on the situation with my dads council tax on a rented property. I hope it can help someone in the future that is in a similar situation and not to take any accusations that you know is blatantly incorrect.

My father has a phone call from the council tax department today, the chap on the phone was very apologetic, and was quite happy to say the council had messed up.

He said that at the time my dad tried to pay with a cheque it is correct that he could not pay this way and this has led to the fact the council believed he was trying to wiggle out of it. Clearly not since like I mentioned he has always 100% paid all bills without question, never paid a bill late or short.

The chap explained that he had no idea has to what happened to the cards that should have been sent, and he apologised for these not being sent out, basically he said they had not been sent and he had no idea why. Its just something that got missed in all the confusion. Fair enough, it happens.

The cards have been sent now and he is paying the c-tax quite easily the way he likes it until the new tenant moves in.

The chap also said that to ease the burden on those wishing to pay by cheques (and to ease a massive backlog because of cheque paying restrictions) they have now resumed payment of council tax by cheque.

Court case has been dropped, a full refund is on its way and I have to say, fair play to the council/chap on the phone for owning up and saying, 'look on this occasion, we made a mistake, we are sorry' Not many people do that these days. Honesty seriously runs thick in my dads veins and he really does appreciate it when someone stands up and owns up.

I took one bit of advice from this topic and that was to claim back what you owe once you have paid it and the council will come up trumps if they know they are in the wrong, and they did. So thank you for that bit of advice. He also wrote a letter as suggested that in this instance, he had tried to pay, the process was flawed causing the council to incorrectly accuse him of non payment of council tax. The letter was constructive and not in any way abusive or aggressive and it looks like they listened. Someone else passed that nice bit of advice on in this forum, top advice.

I suggest that in the future if anyone is in a similar situation, just pay the court fees and whatever they are asking for, then fight for the return of those fees after. If you are truly in the right, then I suspect the council will pay it back. They will have no option to I would have thought.

But thanks for any advice. Glad my dad has been proven correct and i've suggested he should go out and get a parking ticket to celebrate.
:beer:
Regards
Gazzebo.