A couple of months ago my girlfriend got a letter from the council saying that her rented property was being rebanded from band B to band A.Yesterday she recieved a summons to appear in magistrates court for non payment of council tax, along with all the usual threats about bailiffs etc.Now she has paid all the past instalments and has the receipts to prove it.So I get on the phone to them and speak to a lady about the summons and ask why they sent it out,when the tax has been paid.She informs me that the summon has been canceled and in fact they will be sending a refund of £59 next week.So I then ask again ,why they issued a summons and she tells me there was a shortfall on one of the payments.I then ask why they didnt send the required reminder.She tell me they did a month ago(this was never received)pointing out that one payment of £69 was received and this should have been £69-43p and so there was a 43p shortfall and that is why the summons was issued.
Now this is where it gets better(depending on your point of view)She then goes on to say that in additon to the £59 being redunded next week,there will be no more council tax to pay until next April.Because(wait for it)Since 1997 my girlfriend has been overpaying because the property has been in the wrong council tax band,due to a clerical error on their part on the 1/4/1992.So in fact rather than being 43p in arrears my girlfriend is in fact about £600 in credit
They then apologised about the summons and blamed it on their computer( "it doesnt recognise people only figures sir") Later when I sat and thought about this,I get to thinking.They have kept the money that has been overpaid,so denying my girlfriend the facility of paying monthly,and also should there not be an issue of lost interest on this money that was overpaid?
Coincil tax fiasco 
