Court fees-Council office gave wrong information

[evank]

Hello,

First of all it's my first post so my apologies if i m doing something the wrong way.

I have a problem with the council tax, i missed one payment back in may as i thought that the council tax year starts later on.
I went to the local council tax office straight away when i received a note that there is unpaid balance on my account.That was back in May!

I had an appointment and when i informed her of the situation, she explained to me how the council tax year works.I apologised for missing a payment and asked her what should i do.

She said i ll have to pay for the 2 months at once and then starting from June, i should make a monthly deposit by the 12th of each month.
I asked her if there will be any extra fee for missing the payment and she said no.

A few months after a received a letter from a solicitor claiming that we owe the whole amount of our council tax.
From june we hadn t miss a single payment and having in mind what the officle clerk told me back in May i thought it was a case of miscommunication so i didn t ring him.

The solicitor sent a second letter so we thought of calling him.He says he has no track of our payments (as he s not in contact with the council) and that we should pay all the remaining balance at once.

A few phonecalls and 1 month after it seems that we need to pay the remaining balance plus 250 pounds of court fees.

For me, there was lack of information at the council tax office as they told me i will have no problem if i pay monthly after i missed the first payment.

Can anyone suggest what to do as the councli tax now says it s a matter between me and the solicitor office.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[naughtykitten]

Hi as you know I had a very similar problem!

Unfortunately it seems even if they admit fault you will still have to pay the full amount regardless, but you may get a refund of any charges you have received in error.

You will need a record of how much you have paid, when & by what means & double check that you have paid the right amounts -they should be able to tell you what amounts you have paid & when they received them & why they charged you what they did.

You will need to pay what they are asking for now anyway or you will end up in court or they can send bailiffs -they are nice like that!

I emailed them via their website, & also sent a letter but do this once you have all of your information to give them. Once I sent them my dispute, they checked it & replied -with a refund cheque for the fees I was charged in error -about a week later. They did not apologise for their mistake..!