Council Tax - Grrr! *Long rant*

Lilypad_2

(NOTE - I have just written all this out once, it took me a long time and when I went to post it I'd been signed out! Argh!) so here goes again...

This is my first post. I have read a lot about council tax etc on these threads but can't find anything that really helps me in my situation.

I'll start at the start - 8 months ago, my family (me, my boyfriend and our then 5 month old daughter) moved house, town, county. We had been there approx. 3 weeks when we had a council tax court summons. (We had already found out the house was 'black listed' due to previous tenants). I called the council to explain that we hadn't even had a bill! She said it was tough, that we either pay the £1000+ now or go to court. I explained that we had only just moved to the area, that my boyfriend worked a lot (80mile round trip to still previous job, I was looking after our DD FT and we didn't have a lot of cash) and that I wouldn't be taking my baby daughter to court - there was no one to look after her, we didn't know anyone in the town, I didn't drive and the court was a fair way away. Response - tough.

So the court date came and went and we had bailiffs knocking at our door. He said we had to pay now, or have our possesions listed and arrange to pay in monthly installments of £240 (more than twice what our council tax bill would have been). This was not good, in our situation, but we managed to do it. We even looked on the bright side and thought 'wow, a years council tax paid off in 5 months, that gives us an easy start to 2008'.

Next - the bank did us over. They took our loan repayment out twice, it took us over 14 days to get our money back (this is a whole other rant for another day lol) and because of this we had to deafult on our bailiff repayments. So they wanted paying, in full. The bailiff was quite nice really, and I did understand that he was just doing his job. He said we had £640 outstanding, plus 'extra bailiff costs' of £240 (they charge £240 for passing on an EMAIL with our 'case' pfft!). So that was £880. We were broke, we had 5 days to pay. Somehow we managed (we were eating nothing but vegetables for a week after haha) and that was all done and dusted.

Then, a few weeks later, I'd been reading a lot of stories in our local paper of people who had had similar experiences. People who had had council tax court summons for no apparent reason (never missed a payment, even lived in the house for years).

To top it all off - I believe our house is in the wrong council tax band. (We are currently a B, I believe we should be an A). As our house is rented, I'm not sure what we do about this?

I feel there is something to be done about all of this mess and stress and hardship we have been caused thanks to our council. I'm just not sure there is, or what could be done.

If you read all that, well done, gold stars!
Thanks a lot,
Sally x
P.S. - the first time I wrote all this out it sounded a lot better haha.

vicki_b

grr the council tax do my head in!the bill wasnt yours to pay and was the previous tenants bill by the sounds of it!!if you can prove when you moved in and everything i would be demanding an apology right now from them!its disgusting!!it sounds like the previous tenants have done a moon-lit flit and not given a forwarding address so the council tax have just pinned the outstanding balance on the first people that moved in!have you got a tenancy agreement from when you moved in..?

the council tax will go to any lengths to get an outstanding balance.please tell me you' try and get an apology as bailiffs at the door isnt something you should be dealing with with a new baby!

at the most after 3 weeks at the address you should,ve owed 300pounds at the most and they probably wont have even prepared the bill in that time nevermind got a court case together

Badger_Lady

It seems to me, you should have found a sitter and gone to court - as new tenants in the property, they surely would have found in your favour and this whole mess would have been avoided..?

moneymare

Cannot believe this scenario, sorry. If someone calls us to say they have moved into a property and there are documents there relating to previous occupiers, then the old account is apportioned and the new tenants will get a brand new bill, from the date they moved in until the end of the current Financial Year.

In NO way, shape or form, would we say 'tough', you have to pay it. Ridiculous.

As long as you can demonstrate when you moved in, ie tenancy agreement, utility bills etc then you shouldn't have a problem and will be able to get a refund of any monies overpaid.

Lilypad_2

Thank you all for telling me I'm a right in thinking that they were wrong!

badger_lady - it wasn't at all possible for us to go to court, we moved to this town having never been here before (ooo a risk, but it's so lovely) and so had no one to turn to. My parents, and indeed, all friends and family, live 80 miles away.

The picture we get of the previous tenants is that they hardly paid anything! Our first utilities bills were ALL red (the cost was right, it was what we had used in the first month of living there) but that wasn't the point!

The only good thing really is that now we have no council tax to pay until April next year (saving £101 a month) but we paid an extra £400 in bailiff costs! Like you say, the council should appologise. It makes me feel a little better when I read in the paper we're not the only ones, it also makes me a little madder lol.

People have been saying that the council are in dire straits and are doing this to scare people and make them pay their tax in one go, up front. Could that be true... hmm.

All I want really is an apology! (Especially annoying if we ARE in the wrong council tax band as well!!)

Oh and, to top it all off - our neighbour has stolen (yes, stolen , as in, removed, gone) our bin! And the council won't give me another one for 6 weeks!!!! It's already been 3 weeks. Nice lot of rubbish in our yard. Nice...

Thank you all for your help and advice... I may take a little trip to the council offices tomorrow - with any luck I might get someone who gets paid to be complained to! lol.

Sally x

vicki_b

hi i know its not ideal but perhaps you could ask for a new bin on Freecycle?there seems to be an awful lot of people on my local freecycle giving away their old ones...

olly300

I agree with moneymare. The way the OP has written the post indicates either they didn't bother notify the council tax office when they moved in, ignored any bills they did get addressed to "The Occupiers" or something else is going on.

Councils do miscalculate bills and send out threatening demands sometimes for no good reason.

OP if you contacted them and they were rude on the phone then there are organisations or posters on here who will tell you the best way to sort the matter out. While you maybe busy the fact that you can post on here indicates that you could have contacted your council in writing sometime before the court date to stop the bailiffs coming round.

I've had to complain to the Finance Director of my council over the mess the council tax office has caused over my bill this year. I was also threatened with court action but knew being proactive would sort the mess out (and also leave a paper trail making the council look like idiots if they did take me to court.)

CIS

I agree with Moneymare - if we dealt with an account like this it would be closed immediately and re-opened in the new name - in fact Ive dealt with similar casees to this - quick change of name and a call to the baillif and it was sorted . The new tenant hadn't bothered telling us they had moved in until the bailiff for the last tenant arrived.and then complained about having the bailiff turn up at the door.....

If the council have dealt with an account in this way then you need to make a formal complaint


What I can't understand is why you would pay when the court summons wasn't even in yourrname and therefore the Council would have no legal enforcement powers ? and did you not tell the bailif the name on the papers wasn't you ?

Mikeyorks

Lilypad wrote: »

.

1. We had been there approx. 3 weeks when we had a council tax court summons. (We had already found out the house was 'black listed' due to previous tenants).
2. The picture we get of the previous tenants is that they hardly paid anything! Our first utilities bills were ALL red (the cost was right, it was what we had used in the first month of living there) but that wasn't the point!

Sorry Sally - but your posts don't really make any sense, I'm afraid. The Summons can't have been in your name (it takes 3 weeks to prep cases and get them into Court - and I'm sure you didn't advise the Council you were there on day 1?) - so why pay it.

And if the first utility bills were 'all red' - then they equally weren't in your name? And if they were in your name ...... they weren't red. Utility companies don't 'blacklist' properties - only the specific tenants in them, that cause them difficulties. And they don't - either deliberately or inadvertently carry that over to the next tenant.

elmer

When my Council issues a bill, the start date of your account is listed on your Bill from ddmmyy until 31.03.08, so if your bill starts before you moved in you need to tell them so that you can be rebilled.
This would result in Scotland in all costs being removed, the amount that you have already paid would be credited to your account, and if you have paid until the end of the year, you would be due a refund.
It is not possible for my council to issue the full set of letters for a warrant in much less than 6 weeks, so I would definately speak to your council about your account. It can all be changed if the details are incorrect, however, please speak to them pleasantly as we speak to very many people who assume that we are incompetant and then it can be very easy to become so!

Hope this helps
Elmer

beingjdc

The best thing to do in this situation if the council staff don't sort it out is to get in touch with one of your local Councillors. They love interfering, and they like sorting things out for voters!