Hi there,

We have recently received a bill from 7 years ago re: outstanding council tax.

There was a liability order issued in june 2003 for the full amt of council tax owed for that year - 2003 - 2004. We requested over the phone in march that they send us a dirtect debit form so we could pay monthly. we never recived this - nor did we receive a bill, in fact we never received a summons and only found out about it after it had been granted. we contacted the council and made a payment to show that we were engaging with them and the debt pending a full breakdown of the bill and a monthly direct debit / repayment plan. nothing was sent to us. 2 weeks later we rang them again and made another similar payment to ensure we weren't falling behind. Again, we never received anything. after that - we waited for them to contact us (they never did) and then moved out in march 2004.

we have made 3 subject access requests relating to this issue and have even sent a cheque for £10 to them to try and obtain documents relating to the case as we have not seen proof of anything and nor did we receive anything at the time. they sent the cheque back and told us to contact a specific person at the council. we emailed that person / email address 2ce and never received a response - this was in feb this year - so more than 40 days have passed.

the only thing we got from them, prior to the SAR was a statement of acct. this clearly shows that they have re-allocated £100 out of the £300 payments i made to cover the c tax for the month after we moved out of the property - in april 2004. this re-allocation was done in 2009. they have thereby increased the amount they claim we owe them - is this legal? can they take my money and re-llocate it to another acct year to pay off tax because they know that no liability order was issued for that following acct year and because the flat was vacant then?

also, what can we do about them completely failing to respond to a SAR?

sorry for long post but this has been a mess for the last 6 months - we only want to get to bottom of it and have been ignored, threatened by / with bailiffs and are very jaded by the lack of legal process in the whole matter.