Council Tax bullying

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Got a final demand from the council to pay the tax for when my rental flat was vacant. Have sent them an email:

Hi

Thank you for your Final Notice, which arrived today (30 Nov) having allegedly been posted by you on 24th Nov.

It came as a bit of a surprise to me, since your previous correspondence informed me that you had set up a payment plan, from which I reasonably had assumed that things were in hand and that no further action was thus required on my part. There seems to be issues with your systems if it generates contradictory letters within a couple of weeks and threats of Summons unless someone pays with the next 24 hours.

Anyway, I have paid it.

I would appreciate an acceptance on your part that the Council’s systems were at fault, and hence a related apology for causing unnecessary stress!!

Regards

Whaddya reckon to my chances of getting an apology?

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@butterscotch …what voodoo things have you been up to? Some weird linkage going on in my thread, and quoting my op in your own one.

You’ve been playing again, without supervision. Naughty, naughty!!:rofl::rofl:

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Ooh. Just noticed @butterscotch , you’ve fixed the tags. Well done.

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I bet you get one of those sort of apologies worded so that it doesn’t actually admit they did it wrong, in case you sue

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The final warning said unless I paid by 1 Dec, they’d get the magistrates court involved (presumably leafing to an automated ccj, which would have affected my credit rating) which would have cost a further £80.

They only sent me the original bill for about £79 about 4 weeks ago, with a further letter a couple of weeks later saying they’d set up a payment plan so it would be paid off by the end of their usual cycle (Feb or March next year).

The flat had been empty for about 3-4 weeks from mid/late Sept to the end of the second week in Oct.

I had delayed paying originally since I had been waiting to hear back from my letting agents (my contact there was on holiday for a few days) as to whether I had to pay it, or if they were and it’s be deducted from the rent sent to me.

Outrageous!!

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I used to take cases for something else to Magistrates court. We always dreaded getting being scheduled behind the Council Tax lot because they always had loads of people in the corridors disputing and believe me, if you take a case in front of the magistrates that could have been sorted out beforehand, or even at the last minute in the corridor, they’ll let you know all about it :scream:

CCJ’s are only dished out in County Court and a Magistrates Court Order shouldn’t affect your credit rating, although the council will pass the order on to bailiffs for debt recovery and the magistrates can send you to prison, so watch your lip!

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Thanks for the clarification @Maree.

Either way, Manchester Council were in the wrong, and whereas I am in a financial position to have resolved it, others might no be and hence may be going through stress which has been brought about by the Council’s mishandling of matters.

Life’s hard enough at present without some halfwittedly designed system adding to one’s woes!

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Even if they say they’re sorry, Dex, they probably won’t mean it.

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They might touch base, square the circle, look under the bonnet and google how to do corporate apology without apologising.

But they probably won’t bother, in which case sue them. Only joking. Why not apologise for not receiving their apology, just for the record, as recommended by your legal department.

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You know madness happens here also…best stop now if you can’t read for long… :+1:

I go a summons from a designated legal company. Huissiers of Justice**.
It was established only that is was for a non payment of a health bill…
I contacted my opposite young neighbour for advice and that was a shock in is self…I realised I had not seen her for months only the Husband…there she is at the front door holding a new born baby…a boy named Romeo… anyway…

…She looked at the paperwork and thought about it, then said pay it and try to claim back after…was just under 50 euros.

I emailed the company that was on the summons wanting to know what was this all about. No answer in fact the email was rejected and returned to me.
I phoned my top up Insurance Company and they said they would chase this up for me…They did not in fact sort anything out. Told me it was my fault as I had not forwarded an invoice…I did not have or need one as normally everything is done automatically with our registered health cards via the computer system…

Few weeks later I had blood tests, but no results arrived…Phoned the laboratory and they said my top up Insurance Company had not paid the costs…Now in the picture…sorry it is long winded…
The top up health insurance company had changed internal accounts to another company…

.I had no idea why they messed up here and they did not transfer my documents that link payments…

I delved into the Company deeply and realised the only method now for contact with them was emails…

So I went into our Broker that we use for our Vehicle Insurance that is nearby…face to face from now on…took out a new policy, with allowing time for cancelling the other one. Broker would deal with all paperwork and sorting out everything with the other company…

Still have not got my money back and feel I likely will not, but I will say these company’s that target ex Brits are not what they seem…
Exclusive Healthcare Insurance…turns out they are not that at all and just third party similar to a broker really…I mean our Policies have there name on it and so really like a con…the Company that deals with the accounts now is Verspieren and no idea who is running the company…

** A huissier de justice (literally French for “justice usher” ), sometimes anglicized as judicial officer, is an officer of the court in France, and The officer is appointed by a magistrate of the court (or in France, by the Minister of Justice) and holds a monopoly on the service and execution of court decisions and …

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11

Is “Council Tax” another name for council rates?

I don’t understand why it is isn’t paid annually or quarterly or why it matters if the premises is vacant or not. Surely it isn’t paid weekly?

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Its usually paid monthly and is based on the value of the house
Its used to be that if the house was empty you paid nothing or 50 % I can’t remember .
I don’t know if this is still the case .
Council tax covers things like services and police / waste etc
We live in the country the garbage people come once every two weeks and haven’t seen a policeman in years.

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We don’t pay council taxes here in France once you are retired with just average incomes…We pay a tax on the wealth of our Homes though…
just add
Anything outside they are interested in.
You double glaze your windows…you add above ground Swimming Pool. so certain things you change, they then want you to pay more in the House taxes…

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Yes, it is another name for what was previously called council rates.

It is an annual tax but as a concession councils allow monthly payments. Empty property does get a reduction due to being unoccupied. There are discounts for disabled people and those who are single occupiers. I believe there is also discount for those on a very low income, not sure about this though.

There are many ways this tax is very unfair but attempts to make it that the tax is levied on the person, called Poll Tax, rather than on the the property caused many problems so it was dropped. I have had run-ins with the council where I used to live over being unable to pay due to unemployment but still they demanded payment, not only the month I had missed but the whole of the outstanding annual amount, totally ridiculous but that’s how councils operate.

The link below gives all details about Council Tax:

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I get it, no discounts here except for pensioners get $250 a year discount, I just pay my rates as a one off payment each year. I think the rates outrageous, for example mine are about $1300 a year (about ÂŁ650) and from memory includes about $400 for garbage collection as well as a charge for stormwater. The rates go up every year in line with the CPI.

Bastards!

I am thinking of getting the 80litre red bin (general waste) next year to replace the 120l bin as that saves $100 a year, I only put my bins out once a month. The amount of garbage I create isn’t worth putting out weekly.

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Bruce that ÂŁ650 sounds pretty reasonable to me .
We pay ÂŁ1,195.62 pa on a small bungalow in a rural area.
It goes up every year
We also pay ÂŁ54 pa for a green bin ( garden waste ) although I compost everything I can .
We have all these boxes for recycling too.
I am always appalled at the amount of rubbish we generate which is mostly unnecessary packing .
We do get ÂŁ100 a year heating allowance .

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Never “Rated” :icon_wink: the system we have had since 1993, there is a fair chunk of society who don’t have to cough up for the social services provided to all, last time all folks were asked to chip in, it got a bit awkward.

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Things have changed, it used to be Rent and Rates, now its Mortgage and Council Tax. :smiley:

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If you are receiving housing benefit ,studying or in jail you are exempt from council tax.

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And, if you ain’t Renting, Mortgaging of have an insertion on the Land Registry.