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Original poster

Is everyone's bastard City Council as trigger-happy with the summonses over slighty late Council tax - or just ours??!

35 replies

UnquietDad · 04/01/2009 23:11

So DW and I have been paying our council tax here religiously for the last god-knows-how-many years. We still send the cheque and the payment slip.

One month earlier this year we were a bit late sending it in. And I don't mean totally taking-the-piss late, I mean a few days.

We got a nasty letter.

And I mean a nasty letter.

I phoned them up, spat my vituperation down the line and told them the cheque was already in the post and that it wouldn't hurt them to be a little more patient. The girl on the other end of the line was actually pretty defensive and mouthy, but I let it go.

We sent off our July, August, September, October and November council tax payments on time with no problems.

In December we were a few days late again. A few days. Literally. Partly thanks to our busy lives and partly thanks to the post. You know how it is in December.

This time we got a really, really nasty letter, saying we had lost the right to pay in instalments as we had "remained in arrears" - and threatening a summons.

Let's just run that one past you again...

A fucking summons.

Because they had looked at June, and they had looked at December, and they had concluded that the "arrears" were continuous, rather than discrete.

I'll tell you what I did next if anyone is interested. But first of all I want to know if we are alone in having such twats as public servants, or if our Council is just typical...

OP posts:
ChasingSquirrels · 04/01/2009 23:13

they didn't look at it, the computer generated it.

Original poster
UnquietDad · 04/01/2009 23:14

I think that says it all, if that's the case...

OP posts:
Tortington · 04/01/2009 23:15

no i think most councils are cunts in this regards. what did you do next?

UnfortunatelyMe · 04/01/2009 23:16

They are all the same and somewhere in the small print it will mention the fact that you will lose the right to pay in installments.
Same as the £12 charge for going over your balance at the bank.
Or payment to catologue late, some charge.

Original poster
UnquietDad · 04/01/2009 23:18

I sent this.
It's pompous as hell, but it gets the point across.

----------

I wish to comment on the letter from a Ms LM [name of Finance Director] which I received this week, alleging that our council tax account is "still in arrears" based on a reminder issued in June, and threatening legal action in the most heavy-handed and threatening language.

I understand that our June payment was delayed for reasons beyond our control. Subsequent payments have been on time. Our December payment was sent at the beginning of the month and I assume it has been delayed by the usual efficiency of the postal services - you should find that it has now arrived at the council offices. This is not how I would define "being in arrears". Perhaps Ms M and her minions should get their facts straight before sending such communications.

The City Council should be using its resources to pursue those who genuinely default on payment, to invest in the woefully inadequate state of its roads, street lighting and recycling, and to improve the dismal state of its education provision in some parts of the city.

Luckily, we are not easily intimidated by the language of your recent communication, but I hate to think of letters of this kind going out to lonely pensioners and other vulnerable people.

I know it is a vain hope that I would ever receive an apology for the letter in question, but as a general rule the City Council should remember that they are the servants of the people, not vice-versa. I feel a little more customer care and a little less of the bully-boy tactics might be called for.

Now that our December payment has arrived, our outstanding payment is only the January instalment which will be paid at the appointed time. I do not require or expect any further communication on this matter.

Yours with best wishes etc.
----------

OP posts:
ChasingSquirrels · 04/01/2009 23:20

do you seriously expect someone to be looking at every late payment?
How they deal with your complaint and the tone of the letters are different points though.
FWIW when I worked at the poll-tax we would almost always agree to reinstate installments.

solidgoldsoddingjanuaryagain · 04/01/2009 23:20

Stick it to 'em UQD. Mine are actually not too bad (I am a bad payer due to poverty but have always been able to negotiate with them).

ChasingSquirrels · 04/01/2009 23:21

, well it will give them a laugh in the office I imagine!

TheFallenMadonna · 04/01/2009 23:21

We were threatened with a summons over an unpaid tax bill that had never actually been sent to us. And was wrong.

Still, those "minions" will be checking your account pretty meticulously from now on I should think. Better post early from now on...

Tortington · 04/01/2009 23:22

aww thats nice and correct of course, although they will take no notice i expect.

i tend to ignore if i know i am in the right and the payment is due, not get worked up about it becuase the bastards have a system that they follow. this system was created by bigger bastards. They have you by the balls, and in law, nothing will change - and i say that as a revolutionary of change in small ways ( power to the people and all that)

hope it makes you feel better - they are cunts. the system is a cunt.

Original poster
UnquietDad · 04/01/2009 23:23

Yes, I especially enjoyed writing "minions." And the judicious use of the indefinite article before the woman's name.

OP posts:
Fimbo · 04/01/2009 23:23

Our council moved old folk out of council bungalows as they said they were going to demolish them (nothing wrong with them I may add) and promptly moved their council staff in. One was the chief housing person on £52k a year and is paying £47 a week for the priviledge of living in one of the said bungalows with her partner.

She has been suspended on full pay.

Grr

Original poster
UnquietDad · 04/01/2009 23:30

Oh well, at least we are not alone. So the summons thing is automatically generated - is it actually followed up on for people who have genuinely been a few days late with two Council Tax payments? Is this an efficient use of Council resources?

OP posts:
Tortington · 04/01/2009 23:31

should think so too!

when i was a HA tenant, i didn't pay one month as i was one month in front - xmas. forward planning and all that.

they noticed a non payment and phoned me up.

i tol them i was a week in front

they said but i owed them a week.

yeah on monday, which will be included in the normal (2 infront 2behind) rent payment by standing order.

a standing order i had to request, a standing order they lied about

becuase they wanted dd.

i said i would find it difficult to pay unless standing order

miraculously the fucking form appeared ( and i work for a HA!)

Tortington · 04/01/2009 23:32

UQD, efficient and council

ha haa ha haa

Original poster
UnquietDad · 04/01/2009 23:33

I hate Council Tax. Of all the taxes we pay it's the one I most resent. Yes, yes, no doubt I will get a lecture from someone about all the wonderful amenities for everyone which it goes towards providing. Come back to me when I wake up in Paradise.

OP posts:
Penthesileia · 04/01/2009 23:35

Oooh Fimbo - you've been watching "Look East"! Me too. I was very at that.

UnquietDad - we've had something similar: thought DH (when still DP) had dealt with council tax (think again). Anyway, one payment was late, and we had to pay next year's up-front entirely. Disaster.

Original poster
UnquietDad · 04/01/2009 23:36

They did that for one late payment? Blimey, did you try a nasty letter?

OP posts:
TheFallenMadonna · 04/01/2009 23:36

Can you not DD it? I would never post it on time. I have a monthly panic over the credit card.

Aitch · 04/01/2009 23:36

ours is iniquitous, if you are late twice they demand the whole lot. evil. and yes, the letter is couched in the most threatening of terms.

Original poster
UnquietDad · 04/01/2009 23:38

We have a lot of direct debits and would rather avoid adding to them... I just feel uncomfortable having so many...

OP posts:
Aitch · 04/01/2009 23:38

i hate it because for years our council's policy has been to let building firms put up flats everywhere in order to get more council tax payers in, while at the same time actually lessening the amenities that we are paying for.

Penthesileia · 04/01/2009 23:38

No, that was when I was too wet, and DH was too disorganised.

Frankly, I'd relish the chance now to write a shirty letter to the council, but we've become upstanding citizens of late, more's the pity.

After our year in purgatory, we now DD it.

Original poster
UnquietDad · 04/01/2009 23:39

Oh, I quite like doing shirty letters. I am Mr Shirty from Shirtyville, Shirtyland.

OP posts:
goldFAQinsenceandmyrrh · 04/01/2009 23:53

I keep getting shirty letters from EON (and ignoring them)

Basically 3yrs ago exH and i were financial shit and owed them a LOT of money. We got payments cards (not the pre-payment ones - I stayed on the phone for 45 minutes demanding to speak to someone that knew what they were talking about to refuse the prepayment meter) and they finally agreed to monthly payments that we could afford.

We cleared the sum owing to them approx 2yrs ago, but I continued making the monthly payments (as prices had gone up so it worked out the same).

Well fast forward to earlier last year when they suddenly started sending me demand letters a month after the quarterly statements had arrived. I rang them up to be told "oh no you've cleared the debt so the installments agreement no longer stands" - they wouldn't listen to me when I explained by that point the debt had been cleared for over 12 months yet no-one had said anything to us.

Anyhow, they still send me reminder, and then "red" letters a month later - and I keep paying the bills in installments as I always have done, just making sure that I have paid the full amount owing before the date on the "red" letter says I should