please do not move i need advice

michael2007

hi im writing re: council tax, ive posted before about it but i need new advice.

my girlf and i are in debt now to council tax, its been passed to council bailffs, we are worried that theyre going 2 knock the door down can they enter the house?

it all started with us being told the wrong info, we were told we didnt have to pay council tax til end of the year by our estate agent who hav now done a runner and closed down.

so when we saw the statements coming in we thought it was a bit confusing with all the figures and thought it was just a summary. then in july we received a court summons, this shocked us, it said that we had to contact them before the court summons date.

we did this, we emailed them numerously, tried to call them, explaing the situation, trying to find out how to make payments, but they never replied. we both work full time and are not allowed to call from work, although we did ring 2x times to be put on hold.

they are now saying that we did not try to contact them therefore the installment plan is not available. i argued with them that we DID try to contact them numerous times,

she says they only got 1 email, yet i printed off 16 emails from my account sent to them! she said even if i sent them to her it doesnt change the circumstances, but yet this proves that we did try to make contact to arrange payment! can they get away with this?

she said as no payment/contact was made its not out of their hands! this is so unfair, we are only 20 have only just lived by ourselves away from home, we were told the wrong information, we found it confusing and tried to get advice but they would not answer our requests. we would have made payments

we need advice on what to do now......they said the whole amount £2400 has to be paid before january 2008! we cannot afford this in any way possible

...........................................................

i want to make a payment today, should i phone up explain that i want to speak to a manager, send copies of the emails to them to prove that i did contact them before the court summons date and also send a cheque for £200?

then should i ask what will happen once i make a payment of £200, will they stop the bailiffs and will they still expect it all before jan 2008?

i want to make payment before the bailiffs come as that could be anytime. and will my name be tarred from this?

please reply with advise.

thanks

mic

JasonLVC

Sounds like a breakdown in communications to me.

Whilst the withdrawl of a payment plan is common place where a debtor has failed to make any payment or contact - there is nothing in law that states it cannot be put back into place. If this went to a court, the court would accept you owed the money and would advise the council to make a payment plan (assuming you have limited incomes of course) available to you.

The council deal with cheats and dodgers all the time so you need to elevate yourselves from that grouping or else they'll just treat you like you are dodging the tax.

I suggest speaking to a higher authority, if not a senior finance person then your local councillor. Indeed, your local councillor should resolve this relatively quickly - as long as the Council gets it's money (in a lump sum or over a period of time) then this is not a serious issue. i think you MUST take time out to visit the council house and deal with in person (calmly). You'll get less fob offs face-to-face and provided you are polite they'll help I'm sure and you can always ask to speak to their manager if not.

As for not thinking you didn't have to pay council tax - I think you must shoulder some blame here, ignoring council tax statements, not making any phone calls at all (even on a mobile or landline?) or even poping into the council house itself (most are open on Saturdays for those that work during the week) to sort the issue out - is the reason why the problem has got bigger. Indeed, for any matter legal it is always best to contact in writing (via recorded delivery) to ensure communications have been properly made.

If you are both on low incomes, you may be entitled to a reduction in Council Tax or housing benefit (to off-set the rent you pay to the private landlord) - all depending upon circumstances of course.

Good luck and hope it all works out well - I';m sure the council will be reasonable. Failing that, contact the local newspapers and stir it up - you can criticise them but they cannot comment about you or else break the Data Protection Act!.

olly300

I would also suggest that if you cannot get through to the council on the telephone and they don't answer emails there is nothing stopping you writing a letter to the department.

If they didn't respond to your letter in 10 working days (2 weeks) you then write to the Director Of Finance.

Send all your letters recorded delivery (go to the post office at lunch time or Saturday morning) or by fax if you can get to a fax machine.

cattie

Not really any help to you in this situation, but never ever trust any important information to be received & read when sent by email.

Good old letter writing is always the best course, & if you do phone to give information, always take the full name of the person who takes the details & make a note of day & time that you spoke to them.

Butlers1982

Ok

Ring the Council Tax Office and make a payment arrangement. Do not get off the phone until you have made the agreement and ask them to send you out a payment card with the amount on there that you need to pay.

Then ask them to ring the baliffs and get them to return the case. This is where they may not do and the debt will be with the baliffs. Then the issue is nothing to do with the Council.

BUT you do have a duty to make payments of Council Tax and the excuse that someone told you that you didnt have to pay will not wash with anyone. At the end of the day you should have made an extra effort to contact them, if they werent responding to emails you should have made extra effort to ring, ie on your lunch hour.

we are only 20 have only just lived by ourselves away from home

Thats certainly not an excuse for not paying council tax!

Ill be honnest with you though, it is down to the Local Authority to decide as to whether they want to return the debt.

In relation to go to your Local councillor this will not acheive anything in my opinion as the council had sent you reminders,final notices and summons yet your still failed to contact them, other than you sending emails which isnt contact. You needed to speak to someone verbally. The councillor has not got a case to argue with the LA.

michael2007

with regards to your advice, i appreciate positive, helpful advice from people but i dont appreciate you falsely accusing me of failing to contact the council not wanting to pay council tax and judging me because i say we are young.

i do not know how old you are, may be you have years of experience in paying council tax! but we dont, hence this is why i contacted the council months ago to try and get some advice to which they failed to help.

"and the excuse that someone told you that you didnt have to pay will not wash with anyone"

we weren't told we didnt have to pay it, we were told by our estate agent who have since closed up office and done a runner that we didnt have to pay it til the end of the tenancy and the statements sent from the council were very unclear. hence my contacting them.

"we are only 20 have only just lived by ourselves away from home

Thats certainly not an excuse for not paying council tax!"

as i mentioned before the above statement was not an excuse not to pay! if you read it correctly my meaning was that as we are young, have moved country and have not lived on our own for long, we are unsure of council tax as, we have had no experience of it, we have no-one around us to explain it all clearly, therefore dont judge me for saying we are young.

"yet your still failed to contact them, other than you sending emails which isnt contact. At the end of the day you should have made an extra effort to contact them, if they werent responding to emails you should have made extra effort to ring, ie on your lunch hour."

Maybe you are unaware but in this day and age Email correspondence is one of the most popular forms of communication so how you can say it isn't contact i do not understand. I do not physically have time to phone on my "lunch hour" as i usually work through and am not allowed to make personal calls, yet i did phone the council a few times (as stated before) when i could grab a moment and after speaking to the advisor was put on hold for ages.

Butlers1982

falsely accusing me of failing to contact the council not wanting to pay council tax and judging me because i say we are young

falsely accusing me of failing to contact the council

You have a duty to ensure your council tax liability is correct. Therefore YOU must contact the office, you havent spoken to anyone. Reference to emails, you will find that whilst they may be an effect form of comunication in some cases, in this one it isnt. The majority of people on here will agree that in order to sort something effectively, you need to speak to someone and get names.

judging me because i say we are young

I have given you advice on what i think you need to do. You were the one that brought your age into it and i said that wouldnt help your case.

do not physically have time to phone on my "lunch hour" as i usually work through and am not allowed to make personal calls

Then you need to make an extra effort, council offices are open Some Saturdays and after hours ie after 5 oclock.

I dont think you fully understand that the onus is on you to sort it.

barvid

I think you'll find this board a lot more useful if you take the advice given rather than arguing with what someone else has said and trying to justify everything. But you have to admit that a lot of what you say simply doesn't make sense.

> I do not physically have time to phone on my "lunch hour" as i usually work through

Of course you have time - just because you usually work through doesn't mean you can't make a phone call.

You need to see it from other people's perspectives - people are trying to help by pointing out to you that your argument seems very weak, and if it seems weak to us then it will sure as hell seem pretty weak to the council official trying to find out why you've not paid your council tax.

michael2007

to the last two people who replied

i do not wish for your comments anymore. i asked for advice and other people gave me helpful positive, advice.

i am not going to waste my time arguing with people like you, who have not given me any helpful, positive advice but instead had a go at me for not contacting the council, to which i have explained many many times that i have, by email, by phone, i have spoken to people who have put me on hold.

at the end of the day i know i made efforts to contact them for months beforehand and they did not help me. i am willing (as i have always been) to pay and i will now visit them in person and bring my proof that i have contacted them and then they will not be able to accuse me a 2nd time of not contacting them.

i am taking the helpful advice that other helpful people have given me, so thank you to those people.

this matter is now finished.

Butlers1982

i am not going to waste my time arguing with people like you,

Just because you dont like what we are telling you doesnt mean we are arguing with you.
We gave you the information that you need, and told you the situation and how it is viewed. We all have to pay it.

my time arguing with people like you

From what you have said, it doesnt seem you have any free time! working through your lunch etc!!

Anway im over the moon you have got it sorted.

Hapless_2

Maybe you are unaware but in this day and age Email correspondence is one of the most popular forms of communication so how you can say it isn't contact i do not understand

Many councils will not accept e-mail, they prefer to see face to face or deal by telephone.
This is because they can get your file and go through things with you in real-time. Think about it, council offices may get 100's of e-mails a day, it is far easier to deal with someone with human contact. They put you on hold so they can seek out your file, sometimes they may need to refer you to someone higher up the ladder etc. As for making you wait...Haven't you heard,? The British love to queue!