Council Tax - New Build

TripleH

I have settled down into my new home (rented for now but thats a corinary for another day). It is a new build property. Despite moving in in October and informing the local council, they have decided to send me a Council Tax bill for 2019/20 dated the 30th of March but asking me to pay by 13th April for the 6 month period (yes, maths is squiffy).
What really incenses me is that a neighbour who moved in on the same day is given an extra month to pay the same bill.

How realistic am I going to be to ask to pay the bill over 6 months? It's down to the council (Manchester) failing to issue a bill sooner than me not paying. If they had sent a wrong bill, that would have been fine because the balance would be less.

[Deleted User]

 It has to be paid in the year it is due I think. That said why were you not putting something aside knowing you were going to get this bill at some point. 

TripleH

If it has to be paid in the year it is due, sending the bill 2 days before the year end it is due is a bit carp. My arguement is that I am given 12 working days to pay half a year of council tax from the date the bill was issued (they had from October 2019 to issue the bill) and could not have made payments any sooner because there was no bill to pay. Also that an identical property has been given a longer period to pay the same bill (with no difference between the households).

Its more that the Council have failed to issue their bill in a timely fashion but expect me to jump through rings at the drop of a hat. (Its also that I'm in an argument with our previous council over the monumental cockup they did on our council tax bill when we sold our previous property. I could settle the 2019/20 bill in full but just find the attitude of Manchester Council poor. Yes I had put an amount aside to pay it but had no indication that the amount set aside would have been sufficient until I got the agressively worded bill.

RelievedSheff

You knew you were going to have to pay the bill so why didn't you put that money aside?

lincroft1710

Councils tend to be very unforgiving, so don't expect any leniency from them. As it's a new build there is a possibility they didn't receive notification of the CT band from the Valuation Office Agency until recently. I believe they are under an obligation to collect the CT for any financial year within that financial year or as soon as possible after the year end

CIS

TripleH said:

I have settled down into my new home (rented for now but thats a corinary for another day). It is a new build property. Despite moving in in October and informing the local council, they have decided to send me a Council Tax bill for 2019/20 dated the 30th of March but asking me to pay by 13th April for the 6 month period (yes, maths is squiffy).
What really incenses me is that a neighbour who moved in on the same day is given an extra month to pay the same bill.

How realistic am I going to be to ask to pay the bill over 6 months? It's down to the council (Manchester) failing to issue a bill sooner than me not paying. If they had sent a wrong bill, that would have been fine because the balance would be less.

As it's a backdated demand notice, issued in March, then they only have to allow 1 instalment with 14 days notice. Bills will be issued pretty much as soon as the council can do so however for any point from January - March they are under no obligation to offer more than the statutory requirement of 1 instalment.

TripleH

I though this might be the case. I'm just a little peeved that they are giving different deadlines to different properties to pay this. It doesn't help that it has coincided with our previous local authority sending a bill for underpaid tax for last year to us after they made a complete mess of things. (The old council stopped our payments and decided we had over paid so refunded us. Then decided we had underpaid and despite having our new address on file (used it to write to us) chased the wrong people up. The whole thing almost went to court frustratingly so they are not my favourite people).
Knowing Council tendancies, its more where we have to jump to their tune to hide their mistakes / errors / inefficiencies..

TripleH

RelievedSheff said:

You knew you were going to have to pay the bill so why didn't you put that money aside?

I have the funds to pay. I object to receiving aggressive threatening chasing letters with the word 'arrears' in bold on them as the actual first/original copy of billing note issued. The council failed to issue the bill sooner but do so in an aggressive fashion, this is bullying in my book. A polite letter goes a long way.

Dear resident, please find your council tax bill for 2019/20 blah blah (issue with getting CT value etc)
Please could you bring this account up-to-date by 13/04/2020. Nope its 'your arrears are x pay this by 13/04/2020.' 

AlexMac

Really...

lincroft1710 said:

"Councils tend to be very unforgiving, so don't expect any leniency from them...."
Not in my experience?  A politely worded email, asking for a DD mandate will probably work wonders.
For example I got a constructive and helpful reply from one Council to my request for  CT freeze on an empty property; and another permitted me to spread a biggish bill for major repairs to a Local Authority freehold block over a year or more, despite the rule that this easy payment option really shaould only apply to resident leaseholders, not graspin' greedy absentee BTL landlords like me.  Give it a go; you might be surprised to learn that some of the people whose wages you pay are actually human, and respond to "constructive creeping".

TripleH

As it turns out, they have agreed to allow 4 months to make the repayments of council tax.
I think what got up my back was the wording they used. I understand where an outstanding and overdue balance is being chased. I don't appreciate that tone or wording when the delayed payment is them not getting their bills out in a timely fashion. Neutral tone is fine but when you go in aggressive looking for a fight you are usually rewarded in kind. HMRC are just as bad, which is not fair on the poor souls on the front line.

csgohan4

Don't take it personally, it's business, they send these letters to thousands