The council are making my mum pay £700 council tax for nothing! :(

[eljay]

Hey. Basically my mum got a letter saying she owes over £700 in areas to the council because they miss-calculated her earnings. They are now saying that if she doesn't pay the debt off they will take her to court?!

What can we do about this if anything
P.S It's not her fault, it's the councils.

[silverfox1961]

hi there.
Something must be in the water as this is the second one i've looked at today.
If you are absolutely certain that it is a council mistake and that whenever a change in cicumstances happened, which may have affected the amount of benefit, they were told then you may have a claim.
Basically, If they made a mistake in the calculations and you couldn't have reasonably known about it then you could argue that you are not liable.
some councils get very shirty when they are challenged and send it straight to legal. If they start threatening you with court it may need a letter denying you owe them a debt however, make an offer to pay something each week just to keep them off your back. if you have to do this, send them a letter with the heading "I DO NOT ACKNOWLEDGE ANY DEBT TO YOU"( If anyone else has better wording, please let me know)
If they still say it's your fault, complain and escalate it to the chief executive of the housing department.
If all else fails, complain to the Local Government Ombudsman.

NOTE: I am basing my answers on my own personal experiences with my local council and not all councils follow the same rules.
good luck
fox

	The Financial Ombudsman Service For the most part, don't bother. The Ombudsman is an industry arranged service which is under-resourced, takes too long, lacks clear transparency. You have no idea what evidence the FOS has received from the bank or how your complain has really been handled. The FOS is the preferred complaints route for the banking industry. The county court is to be preferred by consumers for its speed, openness, the quality of its awards and also because it will award 8% interest on top of any damages won by you. The Ombudsman should normally be used to solving little technical difficulties or customer service problems which you have expereinced with your bank.

[eljay]

Thankyou so much!!! My mum is going to fight them to the finish

Any other advice?

[callumsgran]

Put everything in writing eljay, dont phone them unless you have recording equipment and send everything recorded/signed for
Good luck

[eljay]

But what if they try send bailiffs round whilst we've sent letters calum?
I see you live in Devon, same here, plymouth.

[callumsgran]

Have they threatened bailiffs yet>

I'm in mid devon nr Lapford

[eljay]

They threatened with prison.

[silverfox1961]

Morning
As far as I'm aware This is a civil matter, not a criminal one. If they take you to county court and win and then you don't pay then that is a criminal matter so don't worry too much about that at the moment. Again as far as I'm aware they have to get a judgement before they can send bailiffs around (please correct me if I'm wrong)
Whilst a complaint is going on the council shouldn't carry on with court action
Is it a threat of court action at the moment or is it the standard letter saying if you don't pay we may consider taking you to court?
Just another thought. I've found out on other threads that it's a good idea to keep the envelopes that any letters come in. staple them to the letter so you know which is which.
fox

	County Court guidebook by Judge Patricia Pearl Follow this link to read the review of this excellent Small Claims Guidebook. This comprehensive and very accessible guide will take you through the process of suing or defending a claim. This guide will help you take control of your litigation and make you more confident about doing it yourself. Applies to England and Wales

[ss002d6252]

If the arrears are though overpaid Council Tax Benefit then the resultant Council Tax arrears can be re-claimed and is a criminal offence which is why , ultimately, the council can consider committal.

Prior to any bailiff action the council must have obtained a Liability Order on the debt.

[silverfox1961]

Correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't the council have to prove that a fraud was committed before legal action. If the OP didn't supply all the information requested when applying for council tax or told lies when applying then yes an offence has been committed however, if the OP gave them the correct information then the council made a mistake with the processing then the OP wouldn't nescessarily know a mistake was made. In that case the could be held liable for their own mistakes.
If eljay could supply some more info on this it would clear up any confusion.
I know from my own experience that councils muck up a lot.
This is a line from my own council paperwork:
Overpayments that are caused by official errors can only be recovered if the customer, or someone acting on their behalf, could have known there was an overpayment.

All good fun

fox