Please help! Council Tax Summons Letter

[Mote]

Kind of glad to see that it's not just me that got a letter dated 11th Jan - it means it's DEFINITELY the council's fault and not just a one off thing. Like I said, I'll be complaining about the lack of notice and hope everyone else does too. Regardless of whether you've paid and they pursue it, they shouldn't be causing all this stress to all these residents.

 

I forgot to mention that the woman on the phone said they don't take any action until at least 7 days after the summons anyway. Given they're clearly backlogged, it's seems likely that a) they'll take longer than that and b) realise lots of people were not given enough notice and be understanding if it took some time before you could get in touch (the people staffing the phone lines will definitely know the phone lines have been jammed!). I'd even hold off on phoning for a few days because you probably won't get through. Put something in writing (email/letter) as proof that you tried to get in touch and wait til it calms down a bit. They are clearly in the wrong with these letter dates, regardless of whether people have paid, should pay, or have mitigating circumstances.

[chocki]

I've had one as well. Can't get through on phone, warned me about bailiffs, what can I do, they can't get summat owt o' nowt! I will keep trying, the only promise I can make them is it will be paid in full before next lot of council tax due. It does **** me off this cos I have always paid my council tax (maybe not always on time) but I have no arrears from previous years, plenty have!

 

My letter dated 17 jan with date of 2nd feb payment in full. I paid £100 last week so that's wrong

[malyka]

Kind of glad to see that it's not just me that got a letter dated 11th Jan - it means it's DEFINITELY the council's fault and not just a one off thing. Like I said, I'll be complaining about the lack of notice and hope everyone else does too. Regardless of whether you've paid and they pursue it, they shouldn't be causing all this stress to all these residents.

 

I forgot to mention that the woman on the phone said they don't take any action until at least 7 days after the summons anyway. Given they're clearly backlogged, it's seems likely that a) they'll take longer than that and b) realise lots of people were not given enough notice and be understanding if it took some time before you could get in touch (the people staffing the phone lines will definitely know the phone lines have been jammed!). I'd even hold off on phoning for a few days because you probably won't get through. Put something in writing (email/letter) as proof that you tried to get in touch and wait til it calms down a bit. They are clearly in the wrong with these letter dates, regardless of whether people have paid, should pay, or have mitigating circumstances.

 

I totally concur, I too will be sending a formal complaint in writing to the council complaining about the points you have stated and requesting for a explanation for 1) Why they did not make any reasonable effort to communicate the payment arrears, they normally send a letter or text me and I have always paid 2) why the letters dated the 11th were only received around the 29th 30th 3) Why they didn't have enough staffing levels to handle their phone lines following such a public mail blitz? 4) Why they didn't manage their lines by assigning staff to call bust and take callback messages.

 

This really stressed me and took up a considerable chunk of my time at highly busy and stressful time at work. I'm afraid it can't go unchallenged.

[chocki]

I totally concur, I too will be sending a formal complaint in writing to the council complaining about the points you have stated and requesting for a explanation for 1) Why they did not make any reasonable effort to communicate the payment arrears, they normally send a letter or text me and I have always paid 2) why the letters dated the 11th were only received around the 29th 30th 3) Why they didn't have enough staffing levels to handle their phone lines following such a public mail blitz? 4) Why they didn't manage their lines by assigning staff to call bust and take callback messages.

 

This really stressed me and took up a considerable chunk of my time at highly busy and stressful time at work. I'm afraid it can't go unchallenged.

 

I think they do it to terrify you into paying. It doesn't work with me :-)

[AdamSmith]

Hello - can someone please help?!?

 

Myself and my partner received a letter stating we have been summoned to pay council tax! It we moved into our property in august 2012 and it wasn't until November that we received a bill. We paid it as best we could and called them stating we will still be behind in April. They said in April we will have to make some for of re-payment agreement which they said was okay.

 

Now we've received this letter and i'm totally terrified and stuck! What can i do? The thought of going to court terrify s me. We haven't received any reminder letters or anything so now incredibly worried.

 

Please can someone help!?

 

for goodness sake stop getting so worried:rolleyes: the worst that will happen if you go to court is you will speak to a council representative outside, if you dont dispute what is owed, they will make an arrangement for you to pay and MAYBE get a "liability" order nothing worse than that, they are not going to cart you or your goods off at this stage, its easy to sort out who evers mistake it is so stop fretting:thumbsup: itsthe ones that ignore it thinking it will go away are the ones that the heavy mob get involved in:hihi:

[Squiggs]

It is disgraceful.

 

I've just got in tonight and received a summons for tomorrow dated the 11th. Thing is, I've been paying CT but I think I've been paying the wrong bill - due to changes in circumstances in my household we have received NINETEEN different bills since last March.

 

Of course, I can't attend court tomorrow so I've had no option but to empty my bank account into theirs and now face the job of claiming back other payments.

 

I bet I can't just sign my own pink sheet of paper, add on costs and so on.

[dawny1970]

If you paid it and can prove it, go to court and tell the council you are going to bill them for your time, if they object then tell them you want to see the jp today to arbitrate!!

[Guest]

yep, received one also dated 11th Jan when I got in.

 

is this legal? they are deliberately lying about when they are sending these letters out to make you pay? (I think I paid one month on an old reference number (they changed them in June and they are claiming next month's as well.)

 

I'm meant to be in court tomorrow afternoon. I'm in work. I got a threatening letter in December and called them up. They were absolutely no help. wouldn't talk to me. just told me I had to pay (I paid that month's 2 days before so I assume they meant that) and didn;t even to bother to ask for any of my details. I just assume it would be sorted. She did tell me it was my own fault for paying online and not at the post office by cheque.

 

I'm guessing it will be impossible to get through tomorrow and if I do pay it off in full I will never get my money back?

 

what on earth are you meant to do?

[Mr Bloom]

Thank heavens for the forum. We can now see how widespread this 'bullying' is. I think Julie Dore should come on to this thread to apologise to people.

[Guest]

I've been trying to call them since their lines opened this morning, but after holding for 20 odd minutes my phone was just off.

 

Does anyone know a good place to get free legal advice about pursuing criminal and civil proceedings against the council?

 

I'm pretty sure when you issue a summons you need to give a certain notice period, and by "faking " the date of these letters they have taken this away. I'm going to have to pay this, even though I don't owe this. I can't get out of work to go to court to contest it.

 

I'm pretty sure what they have done is against the law.