Looking for some advice regarding council tax debt

[BumbleeBeeMe]

Our council is an absolute mess when it comes to admin and have duplicated our account before so we paid a debt they said we owed them last year which obviously they had to pay us back.
They have now contacted us again through a debt collection agency and said we owe them over £1000. We have been paying this back at £400 a month.
I'm pretty sure something has happened with their admin system again and we don't owe this debt. I have asked that they provide us with details of all of our bills since we started paying council tax and all the payments we have made against these bills so I can see for myself if we owe this. We have various accounts because we've moved a lot but it's only three years worth of bills for myself and my partner.
Does anyone know if they legally have to provide us with this / if they have to prove we owe the debt?

Apologies if this doesn't read well, I have a growth on my brain which makes me feel a bit 'out of it' sometimes.

Can you not look through your bank statements to see how much you have paid?

I totally believe how badly your council have cocked this up - mine did the same with duplicate accounts and ended up demanding 9 months upfront/future payments as a 'penalty' as they believed I hadn't been paying (on the duplicate account)

Council tax debt can really mess with your life though, so you already know they're crap and if I were you I'd compile all the evidence you can and make it as easy as possible for them to figure out the correct amounts

In theory, you should have all the receipts to show you made the payments, that is, 10 receipts for 15/16, ditto 16/17 and 17/18, then you can match what you've paid to what they say you owe.

They should be able to provide you with a written record of what is on your accounts, and what you paid and when. I used to to write those letters for a living!

Is it all with the same council if you've moved a lot? Do you have the exact dates that you moved as well? Are they billing you for somewhere that you have vacated?

No, they don't legally have to provide this.
it's up to you to make sure you monitor your account and payments.
You need to sort it quickly as these agencies are buggers for harassment
I'm confused as to why you paid a debt you didn't have? and as to what you are paying back now at £400 per month, are these other debts?

I'm pretty sure that the debt collection agency do have to provide you with proof and information of what you owe

Thank you pretty.
It's really shit isn't it? I'm not with the same bank as I was a year ago, I've called the bank and they have said they can send me a 'limited' statement. I'm not really sure what that means, I'm so annoyed with myself for not keeping all my bank statements.
Council tax is a really scary debt, which is why we're paying it even though we don't believe we owe it
They also have an online system for viewing your bills but the bill deletes from your online account after 30 days!

Submit a subject access request, this would cover all records paid. Although be aware it may be in a longwinded format, mine covered 160 pages, most of which only had three lines on!

It's really shit isn't it? I'm not with the same bank as I was a year ago, I've called the bank and they have said they can send me a 'limited' statement. I'm not really sure what that means, I'm so annoyed with myself for not keeping all my bank statements.

This is why you’re supposed to keep them for a minimum of 6 years.

Thank you to everyone! I really am in a muddle with it all.

@scaryteacher we have never been given receipts. They send one letter that says on it that if you forget to pay they will send you one reminder letter and that's it. We get one yearly bill. Ive been an absolute idiot, I'm usually good with paperwork. It's the same council, we've moved within the same town.

@RomanyRoots yes, I really should have kept accounts! The debt collectors wouldn't accept anything less than £400 a month, they threatened us with enforcement so we're paying it, it's just the council tax debt.

@Bombardier25966 Do I do this with the council? How would I do that?

Of course they have to provide you with detailed accounts.
Tell them you are going to see a solicitor, then google for your nearest Law Centre. Ime there's nothing else that will get them to sort their mess out.

When I paid by D/D it was obviously on the bank statement. When I moved abroad and had to pay CTax when my house was between tenants, I paid online and was emailed a receipt by the Council each time.

If one paid by cash then a receipt should have been issued by the bank or the Cashiers office at the Council.

The Council should be able to reconstruct your accounts and payments and how they were allocated over the past financial years, as well as for this one. Ask them to set it all out in writing for you, so you can see what's going on. Check (if you have the records) what CTax account numbers you had, and ask which numbers correspond to which address, and the dates for each address. Ask what monies have been allocated to each account number.

If you live with your partner, it will be one CTax liability between the pair of you, as it is for the property, so dh and I get one bill in joint names iyswim.

Thank you so much for your help, I have sent them an email to ask and they haven't replied (this was last week).
I gave them a call to ask and they said they would but haven't as of yet, that's why I'm asking if they legally have to. Seems unfair they don't have to prove we owe anything, it falls on us to prove we don't. It'll teach me to keep better records though!
Yes, we do have just one account between us but I'm thinking it could even be on one of my partners accounts from before we lived together.
I think I do have all of the account numbers so hopefully they will help soon.

They will have taken you to Magistrates court and obtained a Liability order against you; to do this they will have provided sufficient proof to the Magistrates for the Liability Order to be issued.

It takes time to obtain all the information and payments for the past three years. We worked on a 2 week turn around for complex things. Added to the original amount will be the Summons, Liability Order and Bailiff costs.

The amount you owe will have been detailed on bills, reminder letters and the Summons. It has to be under the legislation governing the billing, collection and recovery of Council Tax.

If it's one of your partners accounts before you cohabited, then why are you paying it? You are not liable if it is his debt.

Scary we live together and pool money so 'we' are paying off the debt not me. I know they have to have evidence but they have duplicated our account before so their evidence would look right. They've done this to us before, exact same situation.