to be freaking out right now?

[extremepie]

I've just received about 6 letters from the council asking me to pay back council tax which I owe.

Fair enough, I didn't pay it at the time and I do technically owe them money but these letters are for every property we lived in dating back to 2006! Why now all of a sudden are they on my case asking for the money back after 5 years?!

Also, I have no idea how much I owe as every single letter is for a different amount!

We currently have no income, other than benefits, as I am a full-time student and my husband is a carer for our autistic son so there is no way we can pay the money back.

Have also had a letter from a bailiff saying that in the next week they will be coming round to remove goods to pay for it - I don't think even if they take everything we own is would cover the amount!

What do I do?!

Help!!

As I said, I have NOT being moving around on purpose to avoid paying my council tax, it's just that I've had other things to worry about in that time period and (unsurprizingly) forgotton about council tax I owe from 5 years ago.

Why don't you get a job? - Like I said, full time student!

They do it because they get more out of you in charges, I owed £40 for the week my husband moved out, didn't know anything about it, lived in the same address for three years after that paying council tax and had no knowledge of it.

A year after I moved I got a bill about it. The bill was for £600, £560 were charges and I had to pay it. They are robbing bastards

Can I ask again, why don't you get a job? You have loads of debt and yet you are happy to owe money to all and sundry.

Extreme - its not from 5 years ago though is it? It sounds like it is ongoing.

Just go down there with all the letters and talk to them - they will probably let you pay it off very slowly or take some off your housing benefit to pay for it each month if you're getting that.

You may be a 'full time student' but that doesn't exempt you from paying what you owe. How are you funding your education if you're not working?

Ah, that's wrong quietly. I've lived in my home for 9 years. In the summer last year I received 6 years worth of council tax statements in one day! The council must have been very behind with sending them out. Luckily I was a full time student for most of these years so I didn't owe them anything apart from a few hundred, which I paid in installments.

No ones had a go at you. It's a scary situation that you are in but you should have contacted the council as soon as you couldn't pay your bill, is 5 years ago!

If you ring them they will be understanding and will help you. You want to pay it, they want you to pay it. Even if it's just £5 a week. Best of luck

If it has got to bailiff stage it has clearly been going on a while, whether or not you got the letters and they may already have been to court. So go to the CAB asap and get some advice on where you are at in the process and what can be done at this stage.

But in terms of a job, many people are full time students and still have jobs. Or your partner may need to get work whilst you care for your son. I'm not sure you can expect everyone to be wholly sympathetic to no one working at all.

Don't panic OP - speak to the CAB and the council themselves first - explain youre circumstances and see if they will accept installments. They did for a friend of mine who got a sudden demand and hadn't realised she wasn't paying enough over a year or so, then missed a payment - they accepted installments with all further payments of council tax something like £12 a month.

Mm, it's not so much that this is an old debt from 5 years ago that you had forgotten about, more that you have forgotten to pay your council tax for 5 years. At least that's how I, and others, have read it.

What is your full time student course that means you can't get a job but don't qualify for a CT student reduction (of 25% as I recall) either?

And 6 letters. That means this has been going on for at least 6 months. They don't send letters more than once monthly because on their system you have at least 28 days to reply unless the letter states otherwise.

Even if you haven't been moving round deliberately to avoid CT (which I don't disbelieve, moving would be a rather extreme way of avoiding it!), when you do move and you advise everyone of your new address, does telling the CT people not occur to you?

OP, do you live in a parallel universe/la la land?

Phone them up to clarify then pay the money you owe - like every fucker else does.

I got money taken out of my pay [only about 70pounds thank goodness]- had no idea what for. [This is many moons ago]. It was for one months council tax at a rented property I had once lived in. I was so cross as Council Tax people did have my new addresses. However was in my 20s and I hadn't bothered to do forward mail thing which I would do now!
Freaked me out at time as thought would effect me getting mortgage etc - it didn't.l

The cost of it going to court (and it probably already has) just adds more money to the amount you owe.

Ring them immediately, find out exactly how much and then tell them you're ringing CAB for advice.

If you only had £90 pw to live on were you entitled to Council Tax Benefit?

Have any of you tried to get a job recently?? The OP's in college, she's trying to improve her life. She's not sitting at home all day claiming benefits. Good for you extremepie!

You need to contact them, find out precisely what you owe and arrange how you will approach paying it back.

Then you need to take responsibility for your income and outgoings and make sure you dont get into this situation again. Simply saying you cant afford it is little use and will land you up shit creek without a paddle.

belle Have any of you tried to get a job recently??

This has been going on for 5 years though. Fact is, she thought she was getting away with it and was happy to not mention it to them whilst they weren't mentioning it to her.

A court summons is £70! you really don't want too many of those!

Can you dh get an evening job when you are home?

The council will negotiate a pretty do able pay back scheme, if they know you are genuinely concerned. Have up rang them yet?

Funnily enough Belle there are plenty of people trying to improve themselves with further education who also work. I have zero sympathy for OP - she sounds like a bloody parasite. I'm doing an OU degree which I fund by working my butt off. I fit the degree in around looking after my DD as well as working. I'm also paying for my degree myself. I'm not the only one on MN doing this. If OP wants sympathy maybe she should pay her bills before she comes bleating on here about the nasty council making her pay council tax.

No, I don't think debt relief covers council tax. Does your DH work?

Ps: I worked 2 jobs while at Uni doing a full time degree. It can be done if a job can be found.

Also, OP, the fact is that when you phone them up, as scary as that phone call will feel, they will be really nice to you (they have to be ) and if you look like you are taking the initiative they will advise you, but they will expect you to repay and rightly so.

If you don't want to phone. I hate phones and it's one of the triggers for my anxiety so I write instead. And keep copies. Type your letters and keep a file on your computer so you know exactly what you've said and when.

But don't expect sympathy for the fact you haven't paid an essential bill for 5 years when everyone else on here is doing so.

Here here Callisto.

Oh, I didn't notice that this was in AIBU? I'm assuming that 6 years worth of council tax is about 6K? You really do need to go to the CAB. It would be wise to contact them if you move house again.