Help Council bill and added fees

[Dab90]

Afternoon

Need some advice I advised a local council in April 2016 that I'd be vacating in May I provided the dates my forwarding address and contact details. The Council has firstly failed to log and record the above.

In January I received a letter from enforment agents for outstanding council tax bill. I contacted the council to resolve matter. I owe £65 in un paid tax which I have offered pay in full. However there has been £410 added to bill in liability summons and bailiffs cost. I was unaware of the situation as council was sending bills and letter to address I lived in before property in question.

Can council enforces these fees as they failed to action my move out request then sent letters to address I had not lived at for long time.

Any advice be great as I have hit a brick wall with the council.

Thanks

[Snoopy1948]

Re: Help Council bill and added fees

Hi Dab90 ..

Having enforced council tax for 23 years, I can advise you that lack of information, mis-information or simply the council failing to respond correctly to information has been one of the major causes of dispute.

Do you consider the bill for £65 correct and therefore due? Does that charge reflect your correct vacation date?

This whole argument revolves around proving that you provided the council with the correct information at the correct time, i.e. date of vacation and forwarding address or other contact details. How was this done? Letter, phone or email? Do you have anything in support of that contact?

From what you are saying, the council is failing to accept your explanation so it is up to you to maintain and support your case. All to often, I have found people make such statements that may not be true. But in your case, if you truly made this contact and you therefore maintain the council to have acted negligently in response, and you can support your vacation date in another way ( i.e. new council tax account or evidence of occupying somewhere else ) then I would submit this all to the council's CEO marking your letter a letter of complaint that would need investigation. One thing for sure, the council cannot call you a liar, but they can suggest that you are mistaken. It's up to you to prove your case and as such, the resultant enforcement action was truly unjust and unnecessary.

[Dab90]

Re: Help Council bill and added fees

Hi

The £65 is now correct bill amount for last few weeks I was living at property.

I contacted the councils customer service team by phone to advise of my vacating the property which the council lost record of.

My issue is I'm happy to pay £65 bill but not the extra £410 in cost due to council own error. However it's become case my word against there's.

Are liability orders still valid if they been sent to clearly wrong address and never responded to?

[ploddertom]

Re: Help Council bill and added fees

Are liability orders still valid if they been sent to clearly wrong address and never responded to?

Yes. The Council are only obliged to communicate with your last known address. This raises the point that they maintain they had no record of you moving and it will pay to find out the date of the first letter that was sent there & compare it with the date you informed them. You say you did this by phone - would your old records bear this out.

[Dab90]

Re: Help Council bill and added fees

The address they sent letters to was a very old address and not a last known address. They started sending letters in July I believe still waiting for full list of letters sent and dates from the council.

I don't have anyour phone call records of the call April as have changed phones since that date.

[lgfa92]

Re: Help Council bill and added fees

I have to agree - it as exactly the same issues I used to deal with day in day out.

Craig

[lgfa92]

Re: Help Council bill and added fees

The address they sent letters to was a very old address and not a last known address. They started sending letters in July I believe still waiting for full list of letters sent and dates from the council.

Not a lot you can do in that respect until you can get the reply. The council only have to send mail to the last known address they can locate.

I don't have anyour phone call records of the call April as have changed phones since that date.

From the council point of view it is quite common for people (where there's no record in the council's records) to say they've changed their number and can't prove the call. Whilst I'm sure it does happen it is clear to see why the council don't automatically just accept someone's statement.

Ultimately, if you can't resolve it with the council, then you could use the Local Government Ombudsman but they can only look at how the council used the information that was known and whether they followed the correct process in law (they can't rule on law itself).
.
Craig