council tax problems, any help?

Jiros

hello everyone.
I was wondering if you could assist with a problem my mother encountered this week.

For the last decade or so my mother has been paying her council tax with standing order, She does not like direct debits due to problems in the past with other companies.

Anyway when her council tax was increased this year she wrote to the bank informing them to apply the increase. However they did not do this on time.
The mistake was not noticed until the after the second payment, my mother complained to the bank and got the standing order increased to the required amount. when she phoned the council they stated they had sent a letter out(which was never received) and by this time she had received a second letter saying she needs to pay a 10% payment fine, not 10% of the two under payments (£30 odd pound) but 10% of the whole year 0ver £1300.

When she phoned the tax to try and get things sorted it only got worse as they stated paying by standing order has been illegal for the last few years without going to the offices and setting this up??? she had agreed with the tax many years ago with the tax to pay this way.

She now has a large fine on 10% of the whole year, which seems unfair as it was only 2 months. She also does not have this amount to pay. Is there anyway to get this sorted or places she can contact?

Also are they correct with the direct debit/standing order thing? she now has to supply them with all her employers details, and bank details before they will let here pay anything.

Thank you for any help or answers that can be provided

Debt_Free_Chick

Any way you could go with her to the Council office and talk to them?

Jiros

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

Any way you could go with her to the Council office and talk to them?

I have thought about that but they did not seem willing to compromise on anything speaking to them on the phone, The just keep saying that is the law and there is nothing more we could do.

I have considered taking the matter up with a local councilor as I think the charges are OTT. I also don’t see how they can make it against the law to pay by standing order. Dont think that would do much good though.

We might just have to accept what they say.

hodgester

illegal to pay by standing order they say? er, think not.

10% fine? er, again, I think not.

Neither of these two highly irregular statements by the Authority are a) legal in themselves or b) make any kind of logical sense.

The council may not wish your mother to pay by standing order, but she can, and it is certainly not illegal. Please ensure that you/your mother take names when organisations advise her processes such as these are 'illegal'. First of all, as a Council Tax service manager, I would discipline any member of staff who uttered such b-o-ll-ox on the phone. In fact, I'd push for a misconduct charge and take them down the capability route. As a customer, I'd write to the council and then go direct to the Ombudsman, with what can only be described as threatening behaviour.

On the second point, the '10% fine' suggests to me that the council has applied for and won a Liability Order notice, based on the underpayments of the 2 months due thus far. Though again, the fees are set, so for instance, anybody, no matter what they owed would pay £xx summons cost and £xx Liability Order costs. It may be pure fluke that this figure works out at 10% of the annual charge but if a council officer stated that a fine would be 10%, that again appears, on first sight, to be outside the boundaries of what is 'legal'.

If I was your mother I would demand copies of the correspondence sent, for clarity. No council can refuse to issue it. I also suggest she takes names of the people she has dealt with, ask them again to clarify the actions that the council has taken, in respect of this fine and the 'legality' of paying by standing order.

If you can tell us what the correspondence says, then I am sure there are lots of people (CIS, etc) ,as well as myself, who can clarify your mother's rights and best advise on a suitable response.

ps, does your mother live alone? does she claim a 25% sole occupancy discount? Sorry, its just the first thing I look for, in situations like this, a lot of arguing about the rights or wrongs of a missed/short payment can be avoided when you find out the person you're dealing with is entitled to a discount/exemption.