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Hi all,

 

I wonder if someone out there can offer some advice / guidance with this little situation...

 

We moved into our new property 1st May 2009 and had our council tax bill through a week or so later which stated that our council tax charge was something like £1500 for periods 1st May 2009 - 31 March 2010. Then, underneath the charge it said "property exemption" with the same dates shown, and a minus figure of the same amount, therefore our balance owed to the council was £0.00 !! (great!)

 

We then got a letter last week stating that we hadn't made any payment and basically they were taking us to court! Bare in mind that we had no communication PRIOR to this other than our initial bill as outlined above. So, we sent them a snotty letter back with copies of our initial bill for £0.00 from them, and basically told them that we've never had a bill stating what our monthly instalments are meant to be, neither have we ever had any sort of letter chasing non payment.

 

We got a letter back from the council apologising, and basically saying it was their mistake cos they sent a bill to our OLD address and it wouldn't have been received by us etc etc, they've cancelled the whole court proceedings etc - so all of this is really good....

 

THEN - yesterday we had our 'revised' bill through for our council tax which is for just over £1500 for periods 1st May 2009 - 31st March 2010. The council are basically wanting us to pay £260 a month starting in October!

 

Although money isn't an issue and we can afford to pay this, I don't see why we should HAVE to pay that sort of money out every month due to their mistakes! I don't dispute that council tax needs to be paid, and I will quite happily pay a regular amount each month, but I disagree with them expecting us to pay the back-dated council tax due to their lack of competence. So, if I write to them and tell them that I'm only willing to pay £150 a month (as this would be the normal monthly amount) and tell them I can't afford £260 a month (yes I know I can but they don't need to know that) and that they'll have to recoup their losses some other way than inconveniencing my pocket, how do you think that will go down with them? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thank you,

Lee

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We moved into our new property 1st May 2009 and had our council tax bill through a week or so later which stated that our council tax charge was something like £1500 for periods 1st May 2009 - 31 March 2010. Then, underneath the charge it said "property exemption" with the same dates shown, and a minus figure of the same amount, therefore our balance owed to the council was £0.00 !! (great!)

 

When you move in originally there was an exemption on the property on the day the Demand Notice was issued (Did you apply for a Class C exemption ?). The regs state that a Demand Notice has to reflect the state of the account on the date so if an exemption is live it has to show it as being live for duration of the account , in you case up until 31 march 2010 even though the exemptions are time limited (in most cases) and will likely end before the end of the period billed for.

 

THEN - yesterday we had our 'revised' bill through for our council tax which is for just over £1500 for periods 1st May 2009 - 31st March 2010. The council are basically wanting us to pay £260 a month starting in October!

 

Legally they can bill you as you owe the money. As the regs stand it was your responsibility to inform the council if the details shown on the bill were incorrect or you were no longer entitled to a discount/exemption.

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If this years tax runs into next year, don't forget you will be paying next years as well as the arrears left from this year, so it would be best to get it out of the way if you are able to do so.

 

You can ask to extend the time to pay, which they can agree to do, but will probably ask for an expenses/income declaration.

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When you move in originally there was an exemption on the property on the day the Demand Notice was issued (Did you apply for a Class C exemption ?). The regs state that a Demand Notice has to reflect the state of the account on the date so if an exemption is live it has to show it as being live for duration of the account , in you case up until 31 march 2010 even though the exemptions are time limited (in most cases) and will likely end before the end of the period billed for.

 

 

 

Legally they can bill you as you owe the money. As the regs stand it was your responsibility to inform the council if the details shown on the bill were incorrect or you were no longer entitled to a discount/exemption.

 

When we moved in originally, we didn't apply for any exemptions, the bill just came through like that! We DID query the bill at the time, and they sent us a second bill, again stating that we owed £0.00 - they have admitted to being in the wrong.

 

So my gripe with this now is that I don't see why I should be forced into paying something when I've been told TWICE that I owe ZERO, and in effect I'm having to pay double what I would normally have to pay. In addition to this, remember that we've never seen a bill for our house relating to council tax, other than the two that said £0.00 on them.

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An admin error wont make you exempt from being liable for the tax since you have been there. If you refuse to pay they will just go for a liability order which wont be granted if you can show the court that you are not liable.

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