Council overcharging - can I cancel my payment

[Sunflowerlily]

I moved into my property a few years ago and immediately set up a direct debit for the council tax. Admittedly I’m not very good at tracking my spending so have a separate bank account for bills etc so that it’s easy to see what’s happening, when I remember.
Ive noticed the council tax charge has been double what it should be for the last 4 months - this is a huge amount of overpayment.
Ive received no correspondence from the council other than when I originally moved in (can’t find this paper correspondence though). I never receive a paper bill and have no emails from them, apart from one confirming I’d moved to the area.
the only thing I can think of is that they’ve doubled my bills because they , for some reason, think my property is empty. This doesn’t make sense given I’m registered to vote, have utilities being paid from the address etc etc etc.
without my council tax reference number, I can’t fill in their bloody online forms. I’ve tried calling repeatedly but nobody ever answers. Have emailed but got an automated response saying they would take ages to reply.
what happens if I cancel my direct debit? They’re seriously overcharging me and i think that might be the only way to get them to spring into action!

i suspect you are wrong op

what council
how much have you been paying
what band are you

You would have received a bill before April telling you what the bill is for the year, plus what your payments would be

You should also have an online account where you can view this information

If the property was empty the bill would be less not more, so it's not that

Do you owe money from previous years?
Do you know what band your property is in? You should be able to see how much the bill for the year is on the council website

No, don’t stop paying council tax as this is the only bill you can be sent to prison for.

can you change the direct debit to a standing order ?

My LA charge double for empty properties so that is a possibility.
Have you checked your junk folder in your email?
Don't cancel payment but do keep emailing them until you get a reply.

There will be a "my council tax" log in on their website, you can see your bill and payments there, also they post or email your annual bill every March. If you have overpaid they will sort it out but first check what you should be paying for your band property

Talk to the Council.

Stopping payments can make everything go titzup very quickly.

(Love the replies saying talk to them or log in online when the OP has said she can't do either)

Sunflower, have you looked at the Direct Debit on your bank account? There may be a reference on there which will be your Council Tax number. Mine is 8 digits long but it may be different for different areas.

Alternatively you may have drop in places where council staff work and can give advice. The ones round here are in libraries and are called Hubs, but again,this varies by area. If you Google something like council drop in advice you may find somewhere. Often Citizens Advice work from there too so they may also be able to help.

Failing that, personally I would write to them and explain that you have tried various ways to get hold of them but are getting no response.

Good luck.

Like others say, no don't cancel. It really can make things go VERY badly, very quickly - and once you have an attachment of earnings or a CCJ it will be even harder to fix.

You need to keep trying and make sure you speak to someone.

Update: I got an email response from the council which confirmed they have indeed been charging me an empty property premium. It was my fault - I filled in the original paperwork incorrectly so they thought I wasn’t living there and have been sending bills to my old address all this time. I’d never really given council tax any thought because the correct amount was coming out my account each month for the band im in til recently so never crossed my mind to question anything.
got my reference number and a way of contacting them so have given them the updated info and hopefully can get all the payments adjusted.
i suspect it may take a while and some back and forth but hey ho, it was my fault and I’m sure it will get sorted eventually.
thanks for all the replies!