Council Tax Payments

Sirius_Minor

Thanks for admitting me to the forum. Over the years searching for specific issues, have mostly found MSE among the result & often read the relevant posts & found them helpful.

For the past 3 financial years I have received reminder notices, each time there has been a discrepancy but for the previous 2 years, due to getting the run-around from the council, ignored them, so suffered the consequences.

Not for this year due to correspondence received from a senior local taxation officer which resolved all issues to that date, which was the date before the current years bill was set. What I have learnt & the hard way is to pay promptly & the correct amount if paying by instalments.

Therefore I was surprised to receive a reminder notice on 2nd May dated 29th April stating no payments received up to 26th April. By the time of receipt of that reminder, I had paid the instalment the previous day as laid out in the council tax bill.

The payment dates were 15/4 & 1/5. Payments were made & receipts provided. I pay online & print out the receipt as well as receiving one via e-mail.

Since then, the 1st of every month the correct amount has been paid. In fact, with every payment, £10 extra has been paid so that the final payments on 1st December & January need not be paid.

I received a summons for non payment on 20th May & just got the run-around with every enquiry. What I should have done was attend the court but have mobility issues as the result of a double stroke.

I was dismayed last month to receive a notice of enforcement & have spent several hours on the phone discussing the issue with both the council & bailiff's who are refusing to put the account on hold & demanding the full amount.

I know that there are ombudsmen for various organisations, does anyone know there is one for local government?

In a telephone call with the council yesterday, what was said was unbelievable. "If I believe that I am correct please provide the relevant information". This person was staring at my account which should have shown all payments made to date & on the dates required.

CIS

The payment dates were 15/4 & 1/5. Payments were made & receipts provided. I pay online & print out the receipt as well as receiving one via e-mail.

Straight away that would jump out at me as a potential issue - when was the next payment due after 1st May

Therefore I was surprised to receive a reminder notice on 2nd May dated 29th April stating no payments received up to 26th April. By the time of receipt of that reminder, I had paid the instalment the previous day as laid out in the council tax bill.

To clarify - What date did you pay the instalment due on 15th April and how did you pay it ?.

I know that there are ombudsmen for various organisations, does anyone know there is one for local government?

There is but they can only assist in certain circumstances and only after the council's complaints system has been used. I have found the threat of using them, on behalf of clients of mine, a useful tool in the right cases.

In a telephone call with the council yesterday, what was said was unbelievable

After nearly 15 years of dealing with council tax and council tax disputes there's not a lot that's unbelievable any more.

Overall I think you have a few issues where the right questions need to be asked to determine exactly what has happened and when.

Sirius_Minor

1st payment due 15/4/19 Paid on 15/4 12:48pm
2nd payment due 1/5/19 Paid on 1/5 12:42pm
All payments due since on the 1st of every month paid on the 1st of every month.
If I may ask, what are the right questions to ask them?


Edit: All receipts show date, time, payment reference, auth code which has been provided to the council in a recorded delivery letter sent after that telephone call yesterday.

CIS

Edit: All receipts show date, time, payment reference, auth code which has been provided to the council in a recorded delivery letter sent after that telephone call yesterday.

How where they paid - on-line using a debit card ?

Was the payment the exact amount shown on the demand notice and did you provide the council tax reference number ?

Sirius_Minor

Debit card & all the payments were £10 over & above the amount required for the instalment payments. Did that as after 1st November payment, the bill stands at 0.00

Pay direct via the councils website so that all relevant information is provided. With the info already posted about the receipts, they also have my full name & account number on.

CIS

Sirius_Minor wrote: »

Debit card & all the payments were £10 over & above the amount required for the instalment payments.

Do you have council tax arrears on any earlier accounts ?

tboo

Sirius_Minor wrote: »

Thanks for admitting me to the forum. Over the years searching for specific issues, have mostly found MSE among the result & often read the relevant posts & found them helpful.

For the past 3 financial years I have received reminder notices, each time there has been a discrepancy but for the previous 2 years, due to getting the run-around from the council, ignored them, so suffered the consequences.

Not for this year due to correspondence received from a senior local taxation officer which resolved all issues to that date, which was the date before the current years bill was set. What I have learnt & the hard way is to pay promptly & the correct amount if paying by instalments.

Therefore I was surprised to receive a reminder notice on 2nd May dated 29th April stating no payments received up to 26th April. By the time of receipt of that reminder, I had paid the instalment the previous day as laid out in the council tax bill.

The payment dates were 15/4 & 1/5. Payments were made & receipts provided. I pay online & print out the receipt as well as receiving one via e-mail.

Since then, the 1st of every month the correct amount has been paid. In fact, with every payment, £10 extra has been paid so that the final payments on 1st December & January need not be paid.

I received a summons for non payment on 20th May & just got the run-around with every enquiry. What I should have done was attend the court but have mobility issues as the result of a double stroke.

I was dismayed last month to receive a notice of enforcement & have spent several hours on the phone discussing the issue with both the council & bailiff's who are refusing to put the account on hold & demanding the full amount.

I know that there are ombudsmen for various organisations, does anyone know there is one for local government?

In a telephone call with the council yesterday, what was said was unbelievable. "If I believe that I am correct please provide the relevant information". This person was staring at my account which should have shown all payments made to date & on the dates required.

Sirius_Minor wrote: »

1st payment due 15/4/19 Paid on 15/4 12:48pm
2nd payment due 1/5/19 Paid on 1/5 12:42pm
All payments due since on the 1st of every month paid on the 1st of every month.
If I may ask, what are the right questions to ask them?


Edit: All receipts show date, time, payment reference, auth code which has been provided to the council in a recorded delivery letter sent after that telephone call yesterday.

Sirius_Minor wrote: »

Debit card & all the payments were £10 over & above the amount required for the instalment payments. Did that as after 1st November payment, the bill stands at 0.00

Pay direct via the councils website so that all relevant information is provided. With the info already posted about the receipts, they also have my full name & account number on.

You state you pay via debit card and have done so on the dates above and on the 1st thereafter


Most councils only allow the 1st for cash payments (may be wrong on that) so the dates of 15/04 then 01/05 are very odd


You say you pay extra with the payments due - this may be the problem, some systems rely on the correct payment and can't cope with out of step payments and still send reminders even though the payment is there

You need to calculate the amount due each month over the 10 months for this year
Work out how much you have paid, include the extra paid

Then ring the council and ask them how much money has been paid on the 2019/20 bill


- just a thought - you don't have any outstanding amounts on previous years do you as some sytems pay odd payments on outstanding years


eta
EG

so say your bill is £1000 over 10 months - that will be £100 per month
You have paid 660 amount so far but the bill only requires 600 up to now
See what you are told by the council regarding the amount

CIS

Most councils only allow the 1st for cash payments (may be wrong on that) so the dates of 15/04 then 01/05 are very odd

I was curious at first until extra information was provided but it seems that the 15th April was made so that they could fit the instalment in (14 days from date of issue of the demand) and then resume the 1st of the month from May 19. The 1st of the month is the default payment date if nothing otherwise has been arranged.

tboo

I was thinking that was odd - wonder if the op had moved with area and it was a manual bill to get 10 instalments


If so I would have moved it to Feb and not given 2 so close together

Sirius_Minor

CIS wrote: »

I was curious at first until extra information was provided but it seems that the 15th April was made so that they could fit the instalment in (14 days from date of issue of the demand) and then resume the 1st of the month from May 19. The 1st of the month is the default payment date if nothing otherwise has been arranged.

Before replying, checked previous bills. From what I can see all bills are issued on the 3rd Monday in March.
It seems that this council has a fixation on 15th April (unless the 15th falls on a weekend) as all bills state the following:
X amount due on 15th April followed by 9 (equal) instalments of Y amount starting on 1st May.

As for the previous post the answer is yes. Several years ago. Currently no arrears on account.
Edit
I have been reading through this section & there was one post that held my attention with regards to Council Tax. Reminders are computer generated.
If that is actually the case, What are the parameters for that computer software & more to the point, who set them?

CIS

I have been reading through this section & there was one post that held my attention with regards to Council Tax. Reminders are computer generated.
If that is actually the case, What are the parameters for that computer software & more to the point, who set them?

The criteria are set in legislation. The computer systems are hard coded for this reason (with little scope to amend details)

X amount due on 15th April followed by 9 (equal) instalments of Y amount starting on 1st May.

Odd way of doing it but I can understand why they would (and it's legal).

As for the previous post the answer is yes. Several years ago. Currently no arrears on account.

So it's not an auto-allocation to arrears - that is a common issue where there are arrears and the payments being received on the current year don't exactly match the expected.


Did the council confirm over the phone whether or not any of the payments are showing on the account ?