Council Action Negligent Misstatement

[Guest]

Dear Forum,

I am going to sue my a council for incorrectly charging me with a Housing Benefit Overpayment.

To which they make the statement "The Landlord could not have reasonably known of the overpayment".

I gave the council an email where my landlord replied to me telling him there would be an overpayment.

They ignored it and charged me the whole overpayment.

I just need to prove the duty of care.

Any suggestions.


Allcry



*

[efpom]

Who ended up with the overpayment in their hand?
If the landlord, did you owe the landlord money?

[allcry]

Who ended up with the overpayment in their hand?
If the landlord, did you owe the landlord money?

Is that how you prove duty of care?



The rule also states

[lgfa92]

The correct process is to take the case to the council and then the First-tier Tribunal.

[allcry]

The correct process is to take the case to the council and then the First-tier Tribunal.

Thank you. So we are passed normal things. So to get the council to listen I need to tell them I am taking them to court. Now I'm looking at misfeasance in public office AND OR Negligent Misstatement. For negligence, they must have a duty of care. For misfeasance, they must have done something "evil" with intent to cause harm. Also hard to prove.

Duty of care
Most councils acting within statute an English court will unlike admit a "duty of care"(Canadian courts do). English courts may admit a "duty of care" for non-statute items. for example, planting hedges when they make a road that obscures the view and causes an accident. the bushes are not part of the statute.

The other thing that public offices can owe a duty for if they explicitly say they do (ish). Like saying "we are acting carefully". The court will not allow a public body to have liability in tort unless it is expressed in an act or regulation. And then it is really hard to create that link.

This council has said "we have looked at your complaint carefully", this is an admission of duty to act carefully.
Also, I have communication from the landlord to me, and to cancel with the council did not include in their careful findings.

Negligent misstatement
The council told the first tier that I was not allowed to complain, they are kind of right. It's gone 13 months and they say they have not made an official error. There is no appeal for this as it's too late. I have asked three times for a review. They say there has been no mistake.

They still say that the landlord could not have reasonably known of an overpayment. But the law says that they should not make a finding without a letter from the landlord saying that I have been naughty. I asked them to produce the letter. They cannot. So the council is acting outside the statute. And open to negligence.

They told the first tier that my address was a different one. Then only told me when I applied to the first tier via the council website. They were being very quiet until I made the enquiry. It was a secret I was not supposed to know about.


I would like you to help if you can. Are there any other ways in which I can prove the duty of care for a public body? Can you correct me on the legal argument? Or what do I have to prove for misfeasance in public office?