Bills with the man's name first.

[Magenta82]

Just got our new council tax bill, besides the fact that everything has gone up I'm annoyed at the way it's addressed.

I registered us, my name was first.
I own the house.
The money comes out of my sole account.
Both my first and last names are first alphabetically.

Yet somehow magically the council have his name first.

AIBU to be annoyed?

So why isn't it the name of the person who set it up and deals with it?
Why is it her male partner?

some of the time the male name is first, in the case of the OP, some of the time the female name, the case for myself and other PPs. Either different councils use different systems - very possible - and some are gender discrimatiory, or there is a different reason not related to gender why OPs name got bumped down.

@Cornishbelle

It's the garage he used to use, and when I first took my car there I would have been living at home, so maybe that's how. I really have no idea. It's been a fair few years now.

Well in our system each person has a reference number for council tax (which is not provided to customers, purely for in office use), that follows them around if the move addresses and also links other things like for example if they also have a business rates account or a claim for housing benefit. The reference numbers are in a table in the background and are allocated as needed. So for example if someone has been in a certain council area for some years, and maybe moved address within the area, then that person's reference number would be much lower than someone who had just or more recently moved to the area. When the bills are produced the system is looking at this table and may list the people's names in order based in the person references they have, which the customer would not be privy to.

This would piss me off ! Def complain

@ChilliBandit

Or this. Maybe I've just always assumed they mean my dad because they're writing to Mr My Maiden Name, which my husband has never been, so my head never made that connection.

The point is, they're writing to a man when a man wasn't the owner of car, nor payer of MOT.

So why isn't it the name of the person who set it up and deals with it?
Why is it her male partner?

I have No idea why, how would the council know who deals with it?
I am just saying I personally would not have an issue with who's name is first. Im not certain I would even notice. Some people are bothered by a man's name going first, I am not one of those people.

As for the order the names come in, that will be set by the supplier of the IT system the council uses, and something totally out of the council's control.

Then councils need to challenge the IT suppliers IF their criteria is that they default to putting males first.

Patriarchal culture, innit!

I saw a card on Facebook from a pregnant teenage girl recently, asking her best friend to be the baby's godmother and she had put her boyfriend's name on the card before her own. E.G. Love, Mason, Lily and Bump.🙄😥

This thing goes deep.

We had the opposite problem. DP done all the booking all the paying. Got to the hotel and no hotel room to be found on the system. Somehow it ended up under my name.

Wow, you’re so cool!
🙄

That's interesting, however I've been in the area paying council tax for 20 years, he moved here less than 5 years ago.

It would be the person who set up the account, provided their name first and uses their email address I would assume.

We have this (although my husband's name is first alphabetically so it could be that). Also the mortgage. I just joke that they'll chase him first if we don't pay.

I agree it's an issue. It's casual sexism, dressed up as convention

My previous bank listed me first, because my name comes before my DH in the alphabet. I was surprised how much I liked that

I find this irritating.

I do all the bills and banking. My husband is very dyslexic and computer illiterate. For some reason his name is first on water bill and council tax. And I always put my name first when doing forms and signing cards etc, I consider it a payoff for changing my surname.

It said 'Enter email details for any other adult passenger' and I duly did so.

And I said it was me. And yet 😂

@FuckoffeeBeforeCoffee - oh I am 100% behind you, I posted about the car dealership I bought my car from which rings up and always asks to speak to my husband. Who doesn’t own or drive my car. I hate it. I just ignore their messages as they aren’t for me and my husband ignores them as he doesn’t own a car from them.

Then there was John Lewis who decided the fridge I bought was bought by Mr and Mrs [my maiden name] back when I wasn’t married and that would have been my parents.

How weird!

Is that why my lodger was added as the first name on my council tax bill, even though he had nothing to do with the house (owned outright by me!) other than renting a room, and they could only have got his name from the electoral roll?

How do people think it should be decided? Not narky just genuinely wondering. Whoever contacts first maybe?

Has your partner been in the area longer @Magenta82 ?

It may also be because of how you filled in your electoral roll form.
Lots of council/government stuff will be addressed to <first person on roll> <second person on roll> so if you filled in the man first on the form, they'll be first on letters etc.
(That's why to the pp the Lib Dems send letters to Mr Son and Mrs parent. The electoral roll doesn't explain family relationships)

Another amusing thing is to observe how many people will automatically turn to face the man when they read the title Dr. DH and I are both Drs (in title anyway) so there have been a number of times when he has been addressed as Dr IScream. Funnily enough I have never been wrongly addressed as Dr DH 🙄