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Hi all,
I wanted to share and/or ask for useful tips about my council tax battle with Southwark.
This started a few years ago, when I received a bailiff notice for an old address that I did not recognise. The date for this bill goes back to 2006. I tried to get more info from the council regarding this bill and got nowhere. They just could not give me much info, except to say that I needed to pay. After getting nowhere with them, I decided to contact the Local Government Ombudsman, who agreed that their tactics were unfair and awarded me £200.00 and asked them to respond to me in full details.
I again got further letters from bailiffs about this bill, with the Council just blatantly ignoring their promises to myself and the LGO. So, I returned to the LGO, who again sided with me and awarded me another £100.00.
Southwark finally started responding and sent me a letter with the 1st page of a tenancy agreement bearing my name, that I had apparently sent to them when I moved in into this place in 2006. However, the address on the tenancy agreement is different from the one on the bills that I have been getting. Although they have the same street name and postcode.
I wrote to them to ask them to clarify this discrepancy and to provide me with a signed tenancy agreement.
They failed to explain the discrepancy and provide me with a signed agreement.
But since I pointed out the discrepancy, in their correspondence to me, the address in question has been changing ever so slightly to try and get it as close as possible to the address on the tenancy agreement.
I am now due to go the Valuation Tribunal to determine whether I should be paying this bill.
What are your thoughts on this situation? And how would you advise I approach the Valuation Tribunal?
I have never had to deal with this sort of dispute with the council so any feedback/tips would be welcome.
I wanted to share and/or ask for useful tips about my council tax battle with Southwark.
This started a few years ago, when I received a bailiff notice for an old address that I did not recognise. The date for this bill goes back to 2006. I tried to get more info from the council regarding this bill and got nowhere. They just could not give me much info, except to say that I needed to pay. After getting nowhere with them, I decided to contact the Local Government Ombudsman, who agreed that their tactics were unfair and awarded me £200.00 and asked them to respond to me in full details.
I again got further letters from bailiffs about this bill, with the Council just blatantly ignoring their promises to myself and the LGO. So, I returned to the LGO, who again sided with me and awarded me another £100.00.
Southwark finally started responding and sent me a letter with the 1st page of a tenancy agreement bearing my name, that I had apparently sent to them when I moved in into this place in 2006. However, the address on the tenancy agreement is different from the one on the bills that I have been getting. Although they have the same street name and postcode.
I wrote to them to ask them to clarify this discrepancy and to provide me with a signed tenancy agreement.
They failed to explain the discrepancy and provide me with a signed agreement.
But since I pointed out the discrepancy, in their correspondence to me, the address in question has been changing ever so slightly to try and get it as close as possible to the address on the tenancy agreement.
I am now due to go the Valuation Tribunal to determine whether I should be paying this bill.
What are your thoughts on this situation? And how would you advise I approach the Valuation Tribunal?
I have never had to deal with this sort of dispute with the council so any feedback/tips would be welcome.
