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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

A right good Rodgering and the £500 service charge...

299 replies

Hiphopapotamus4 · 21/05/2017 07:53

Sorry for not coming back sooner with an update. To be honest I was a bit creeped out that more than one of you had looked on Rightmove at every single house for sale in the entire county. I mean, there are literally thousands, who has the time for that?!
But also I didn't want to be like the Victorian safe poster and some of you did offer some helpful suggestions so I am back.

The bad news is, this is looking more like a scam. The council don't have any record of it and the local landowners and parish council know nothing either.
Roger called a street meeting and the 10 houses that pay agreed that a "man from the council" had come round years ago to explain what it was for and they have all paid it since. The other house that doesn't pay and us are much newer to the street which explains why we don't pay and neither of our solicitors mentioned anything when purchasing.
Some of them have a direct debit set up and some of them send a cheque. The bank details and address are different to the council tax ones Sad
Roger has reported this to the police and I'm awaiting further updates from him.
Some of them want to keep paying it because they are convinced it's real and don't want to get behind on their payments. Two of them think we are just kicking up a fuss to try and get out of paying it Confused

The general consensus at the end of the meeting was that it might be a scam, but it might not be. I'm convinced that it is Sad

Sad news all round really (but Rodger did come and now my lawn with his new mower!)

OP posts:
Intransige · 21/05/2017 09:29

I wonder how many other streets are paying as well? If the police do find out it's a scam hopefully they door knock in the local area to find out how widespread this is.

SexLubeAndAFishSlice · 21/05/2017 09:30

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

JigglyTuff · 21/05/2017 09:31

God that's awful. How does anyone ever pull something like that off?

JigglyTuff · 21/05/2017 09:32

Oh and the Victorian safe thread for whoever asked about it was that a woman in NZ found a Victorian safe in her basement and wanted to know how to get it open. And everyone got very excited about what might be in it but she never came back

fernanie · 21/05/2017 09:32

To those who were asking for the original thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2931395-To-think-our-neighbours-are-ridiculous-for-paying-this-and-refuse-to-pay-my-share
TL;DR - house comes up on OP's street on rightmove. OP notices there's an annual £500 "service charge" attached. Queries with neighbour; neighbour responds that everyone on the street pays that charge. OP doesn't pay, so starts asking around. Nobody knows what the charge is for. OP investigates further, assised by local "nosy neighbour" Roger, and now (in this thread) uncovers possible scam.

I must get out more...

fernanie · 21/05/2017 09:33

Oops, x-post with adishbesteatencold

Wishiwasonholiday1 · 21/05/2017 09:34

Those poor people, well done for helping them.

I hope the police can shed some more light on it soon.

Thanks for the update!

Laststop · 21/05/2017 09:36

How awful fingers crossed you get to the bottom of it

MipMipMip · 21/05/2017 09:44

I'm not surprised that some people are insisting it's real. Noone wants to admit to being fooled, especially for so long.

Do you think Roger might be willing to go to the papers to alert other potential victims? As long as he doesn't name them or give numbers he could use "I was one of several to be taken in" - everyone could then deny they were a victim if asked! But making it clear how believable the fraudsters were might have other people come forward and stop losing money. I'd be surprised if it is only your street suffering.

ApocalypseNowt · 21/05/2017 09:45

Wow. Didn't actually think it would be a scam (was thinking it would turn out to be some historic thing) - I hate the thought of oldsters being scammed. It's just such a shitty thing to do.

Good detective work OP!

TipTop333 · 21/05/2017 09:45

Thank you for the update. It's clearly a scam. Gutted for them.

WimbledonMum1 · 21/05/2017 09:47

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MerlinEmrys · 21/05/2017 09:50

Thanks for the update OP.

How awful!

I really hope you all get to the bottom of this.

TheManeEvent · 21/05/2017 09:50

I'm not sure that the fact it's a different account to the general council account means anything. Surely councils have multiple accounts?

LeninaCrowne · 21/05/2017 09:50

I'm sorry that this is a scam.

Roger needs to go to Action Fraud. Chances are that the money is long gone so there won't be any refunds, but at least no one will be paying out any more money.

singymummy · 21/05/2017 09:51

Oh no Shock

ZeldaWasMyGransName · 21/05/2017 09:51

You may be able to find out who the bank account that they are paying direct debits to is owned by, is get the details and call my own bank and ask for the name of the company / person who it's registered to? Might give you a starting point.

TheHodgeoftheHedge · 21/05/2017 09:54

Wow. That's incredible and incredibly sad. Well done on exposing this.

SoupDragon · 21/05/2017 09:55

I'm not sure that the fact it's a different account to the general council account means anything.

The fact that the council can't find any record of it probably does though. Also, no one else seems to know about it either.

EweAreHere · 21/05/2017 09:57

Well done, OP.
I hope the police get to the bottom of it and catch the thieves. It can't be the only street this has happened to!

SoupDragon · 21/05/2017 09:58

If the road is unadopted (I think it has no street lights) and the "man from the council" was the person responsible for the upkeep of the road then it might be legitimate I guess. My parents live in an unadopted road which does have council street lights but the fabric of the road is not maintained by the council, someone else is responsible for that.

pieceofpurplesky · 21/05/2017 09:59

I can't believe someone would do that!

metalmum15 · 21/05/2017 10:01

I reckon it's Roger's scam

Yes, me too. He's probably got several off-shore accounts and a yacht moored at the nearby marina.

Goldfishjane · 21/05/2017 10:07

I'm amazed that anyone can pay anything without asking what it's for.

WellErrr · 21/05/2017 10:07

Hopefully this will be the tip of the iceberg and they'll catch the twats

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