Help! Council 'forgot' to bill me for council tax and now they want their money :(

[littlelamb]

I am so angry. I started full time work in September 2006 after graduating, and because I was claiming housing benefit I informed the council straight away. I still get a little bit of housing benefit because I am a single parent on a low income. But now the council have realise dthat they have never billed me for council tax, which I didn't even know I had to pay I had the first letter two weeks ago demanding nearly £1500 for last September through to April this year, and then I got a letter saying that because I haven't paid any this year, my right to pay in installments has been taken away and they want another £1500. I am so worried. I feel like I am being punished for their mistake. I have been round and round in circles trying to sort this out with them, and they only agreed to stop the court proceedings on my third attempt at ringing them. They told me on Monday not to worry, as they were recalculating everything, but i have just comem home to a letter telling me that i have a whopping £14 rebate for the week I first started work. I now don't know what to do. I work at a solicitors, so I intend to have someone look this over for me, but can they really make me pay when its their mistake all along?! If I had been dishonest with them then I could see their point, but I have done nothing but keep them up to date! Why should I have to pay because somebody therre obviously can't do their job properly I even offered to pay them back at £10 a week which I can barely afford, but they told me that was an 'unacceptable offer.' I wouldn'y mind so much if they were making me pay from now, but to backdate it to make up for their error just seems so unfair. Does anyone have any advice?

I'm afraid that they can make you pay but hopefully you should be able to work out a payback option that you can afford. Take advantage of the fact you work at a solicitors and get them to make a call for you.

You need to offer to pay the arrears by installments and make some payment towards this year's. Is £1500 correct, allowing for single occupancy and so on, that sounds very high ? We've previously had the same letter about forfeiting the right to instalments, paid a bit off and threat has subsided. They do come very high on the priority list of debts though so you will ahev to fidn a way to make some payments. Ring re the letter it may not be the result fo Monday's call yet then see CAB or one fo your colleagues asap.

do not fight it littlelamb - tax is unavoidable it is immaterial that they failed to bill you. However you should be able to work out an affordable repayment schedle (cab can help with this). Unlike credit card debts or similar they do not add interest so you can pay over a longer period.

I have had to deal with ctax/ housing benefit claims (and debts) for my mum and have always marvelled at the incompetence of the officers(speaking as a former local govt employee myself) so trying to argue about the unfairness of the system with them has always been pointless and frustrating.

I can see why they wouldnt accept a payment of £10 per week as that (at least where i live and im only band b) wouldnt even NEARLY cover the council tax that i pay.

I agree you have not been at fault so they shouldnt punish you but i think you need to offer a more resonable amount to cover the cost of council tax you currently need to pay + a bit extra to cover for what you owe.

also dont forget that council tax debt is the one debt that they relaly can get you for... but as you havnt been dishonest im sure they wont / cant send you to jail!

Good luck getting it sorted!

hi ll, can you look into the circumstances a bit more? You say they "forgot" to bill you - are you sure that's right or are they fobbing you off?

Basically if what happened was that they forgot to cancel your council tax benefit, and now want the money back, it's a little bit different. You have a right of appeal if that is the case. It is worth talking to CAB or another advice centre if you can, as they can help you with an appeal or at least negotiate a repayment plan that will be ok for you.

well they will argue that you kinew you should have been paying it so why didnt you get in touch BUT fact is not many people (especially low income) can pay £3000 just laike that so go o CAB and get some back up because council tax dept are not the most generous or understanding

Weaselmum, I hadn't though that they may have forgotten to stop the council tax benefit. Before working I was a full time student so I wasn't liable to pay it, but then I was on income support over the summer between graduating and starting work, so presumably I would have been recieving it then? I honestly thought that because I was recieving husing benefit it was included in that. It seems kind of ridiculous to give me housing benefit with one hand and take it away in the form of council tax with the other?! They have admitted that it was their mistake, that they have only just realised that I was supoosed to be paying it. It does seem an awful lot though. My property is band B, and I would get a single persons didcount. I just don't know what to do. The people I have spoken to at the council don't seem to have a clue what was going on either.

Are you sure the annual bill for band B is over £3000 . If not their figures are suspect and I doubt they've deducted single person discount for example. However it sounds likely that you would be liable for backdated amounts.

yes, you should have been billed for council tax as soon as you stopped being a student, and council tax benefit should have been awarded from the time you went onto income support until you started work. I would put down everything you have done and when and send it in as an appeal straight away - see CAB first if you possibly can - the amounts sound far too high

Speaking as a former council tax biller we had a "money saving policy" to not send a bill a student on their own in a house with the zero bill (this was possible on a old computer system but not when we changed systems,as we could supress a bill like if we knew someone had moved it was pointless to send a bill for the new financial year relating to a house they had left!)

Sometimes the reminder to remove the exemption was missed and we then billed someone for the 3 previous years we had missed. It was a whopping bill as she lived in a very large 5 bed house.

It was deemed by management that we wouldn't persue it BECAUSE we couldn't prove that we had sent the zero bill with the booklet stating that if you were no longer entitled to the exemption then you should notify us.

Firstly get the single person discount of 25%.

Deal with this year's bill first as they are under pressure to collect in the current year by 31st March.

You can offer a lower amount for paying back the previous year (although I would be inclined to argue that one and ask to see a copy of the original exempt bill - this would have told you the charge for the year, zeroed out, and stating that you are exempt from paying this charge because you are "a student" ) The computer will show when they sent the bills out (or not in their case) this would be produced early March.

Council Tax is governed by legislation and by law they should have sent you bills despite you being exempt to show you what you would pay if you weren't exempt. The worst they can do is take you to court -its a magistrates court so nothing goes on your credit file like a county court ruling would and this gives them a "liability order" showing that you are the liable person for ctax.

They can at this time request your employment details and take a set percentage directly from your salary. This percentage is fixed and is set by central government. They can take 2 lots at the same time but we only did that to people who hadn't paid us for years as they job hopped etc and paid nothing, zilch, zip for ages.

This is not your fault, it is their incompetance. Ask to see the original bills they supposedly sent and I would ask to speak/correspond with the manager as it will be he/she who ultimately makes the decisions.

Phew that was long.

My Nan died in 1995. We informed the council as she had housing benefit.

A week later we received a council tax bill for the year (She died in May). When I rang to ask why we had received this bill, I was told 'It's because her circumstances have changed and she is no longer entitled to housing benefit'

No kidding.

I said I would forward it on to her via the Churchyard, but couldn't promise anything.

They did pursue the matter.l

Sorry, DIDN'T pursue the matter

ManxMum - that is horrific. If Ctax and HB work as separate sections which we did where I worked HB should inform Ctax of those circumstances and usually don't.

Basically all bills come into the office to be checked before being sent out, we looked at why HB was cancelled, sometimes it was a change of address and HB knew where they were going but hadn't bothered to tell us.

There is a reason given for why HB is cancelled down although the bill states "change of circumstance" they know exactly why. We always with-held those bills whilst we sorted out the council tax side and wrote a letter out to find the executor/next of kin to provide information.

It shows how incompetant they are.