Thanks all for your contributions - I am glad that a lot of people are fighting back against council bullying. Hello Daydream, I feel that I owe you a personal response since you took the time to defend your position and that of your dubious associates. I would like to implore you to read my first post clearly as I think somewhere down the line, you missed the point I was making. I was not complaining about paying council tax but about the tactics used by Newlyn bailiffs and my local authority. Another point I noticed was that your post appears as though you have little or no understanding of why we pay council tax - and if you're the best there is, then, is it any wonder why your office fails to see reason? In all the time spent in dealing with my local authority and the bailiffs, I honestly felt as though I was dealing with some 21st century Neanderthals. In future 'Daydream', when trying to defend your position, try applying common sense by not disgracefully supporting these unethical practices. Projected by your message, is your lack of honesty which you tried so desperately to disguise with a hint of sarcasm. If it is not too much to ask, will you keep us posted when you are on the receiving end of your local authority? Try jump-starting yourself out of your daydreaming state and you might just wake up in time for the 2012 Olympics.

May the forces of victory be with you on the day of the hearing Tom; pave the way and I'll gladly follow.

Hi fbnts, Congratulations on finding a solution to your council tax problems. Someone once told me that 'the outcome of any case with/against the council is determined by the person(s) you present your case to'. You, fbnts, may have been fortunate to have someone in the council with an IQ of round about 5, deal with your case hence the positive outcome. unfortunately, I have been stuck with those of them who, on a daily basis are struggling to stay slightly above that, set aside for council staff: 2.5 (Admin staff only). I have met some council workers who are a blessing to the community for which they serve and these people (bless them) are the road sweepers, bin men, and those of them who provide similar services to better the local community. To these people, can I say that 'all the Waltham Forest Residents and I, consider your work a positive contribution to the growth of our local community'.

Thanks Rob S, You would not believe it if I told you that I have tried so many different avenues to get the council to see sense but all to no avail. On one occasion I even went to see my local councillor (a visit that will remain in living memory as an absolute waste of useful and precious time) the man was a disgrace and that's an understatment. The cheek of it; he told me that he could not see where the council went wrong (now there's a shock!). His arrogance even compelled him to advise that I comply with the councils demands to pay by direct debit as he can not see any other way out (ignorant wretch). Thank you for the link

Thanks buzby, interesting and informative reply. It is a shame that we always seem to be battling against the beast where the council is concerned. vbmenu_register("postmenu_616586", true);

I recently had an issue over my council tax with the Waltham Forest Council office in which I was left extremely bitter by the lack of respect and the absolute cold-heartedness of these people. My council tax for the tax year 2006 was to be paid monthly with the final month of payment being February 2007. Since I paid by standing order, I was unaware that my August payment had failed to go through. Of course, I welcomed the councils reminder letter which came in September of the same year and no sooner, I phoned them to rectify the situation. The lady I spoke with appeared to be of an understanding nature as I explained that payments for August, September and October will be paid on the 25th September 2006. she told me that she will update my records accordingly and the conversation ended there. By mid-September, I received a summons dated 13th September 2006 asking that I appear before the Waltham Forest Magistrates court. Puzzled; I phoned the council immediately to ascertain the reason(s) why such action had been taken against me especially since I remember phoning earlier that same month. The council staff told me that it was for my missed August payment and for not paying the council tax by the 1st of each month but rather by the 6th. I drew his attention to the fact that I made it very clear to the council at the beginning of the tax year that my pay structure only allowed for the money to get to them by the 6th and as for the August payment, I spoke with a miss ***** who promised me that my proposal to pay by the end of the month will be put on my file. The dialogue below was to follow. Dertweiller = D Council Staff = CS Newlyn Collection Services Ltd 01604 633001 (Newlyn Bailiffs) = NB CS: Sorry sir, there seems to be a conversation that you had with miss ***** but no mention of any payment proposal. D: That’s absolute rubbish, I had no other reason to phone your office besides explaining my situation and putting my proposal forward to clear the outstanding dept. Can I please speak to miss ***** since she would have a good reason why she never updated my case file/records accordingly. CS: Sorry she is out of the office until Friday. D: No kidding! She is only going to be in the office one day after my court appearance. Since her incompetence dropped me in it, what am I supposed to do now. CS: I will suggest that since you do not have the funds to clear the August payment, I will suggest that you attend the court summons and explain your situation to the magistrate. D: Thanks for nothing. On the day of the hearing, I went as advised and noticed that my determination to stand before the magistrate was constantly interrupted by some council staff who appeared rather uneasy with my determination. I felt since I was at court, I might as well grab the opportunity to stand before the magistrate so that I get a better understanding of why local authorities deem it necessary to terrorize local residents with threats of court appearances. The day ended without me standing before the magistrate as originally intended (big mistake) as I thought that I had reached an understanding with the Waltham Forest Council. What I found rather bizarre was that the Waltham Forest Council informed me that if I were to give them my direct debit details, they would in turn waiver the charges on my account, which was put on because of the summons. Not one to be soccer-punched twice by the council’s administrative incompetence, I vehemently refused to hand over my bank details especially since they are not an organisation that is prepared to accept liability for their actions. In line with my originally agreed payment proposal, on the 25th of September 2006, I paid my council tax for the months of August, September and October bringing my account up-to-date. By January 2007, I got a letter from Newlyn bailiffs who informed me that they were acting on behalf of Waltham Forest to collect the outstanding amount on my account. Now don’t forget what I stated earlier in this report, that I had till February 2007 to clear my council tax for the tax year 2006. Shocked by the council’s new line of attack, I contacted them to know what on earth was going on when I got this award winning response. D: Is my account up-to-date? CS: Yes it is. D: Why are Newlyn bailiffs, said to be working under your instructions threatening action against me. CS: Because on the day you attended court, you failed to give us an appropriate method of payment which would have meant that the charges for the summons would have been cleared. And I also notice from your account that your January payment got to us on the 6th of January. BELOW IS ONE OF THE MOST INTERESTING PARTS OF THIS REPORT. Dialogue between D, NB and Waltham Forest (WFC) D: When did the Waltham Forest Council hand you my case file? NB: On the 1st of January 2007 for issues concerning a court summons. D: My account with WFC is clear so why do you have £145.00 outstanding. NB: You would have to speak to WFC about that. D: No problem. D: Once again, how much is outstanding on my account? WFC: Your account is up-to-date. D: If my account payment is up-to-date as you state then why are NB demanding payment of £145.00? WFC: Since your records show that there was no direct debit payment set up on the day you attended court, we are demanding full payment for the tax year 2006 to be paid off immediately as you have lost your right to pay by instalment. D: Is there any reason why you took it upon yourselves to impose this penalty on me without informing me first, after all I do believe that I should have been allowed to deal with your concerns before passing my file over to NB? WFC: Residents are sent an information guide informing them of the council’s actions if they are late with / or fail to make payment. D: Does this information guide of yours make provision for people who have repeatedly explained their circumstances to you or is it generic; and if it is generic, why the hell do you give residents your contact details to phone if we are having problems? WFC: Sorry sir there is nothing else I can say about the matter I’m afraid. On the 1st of February 2007, I made my final council tax payment and was assured by the council staff who I put forward my complaint to, that she will inform the bailiffs that my account was nil. By the 4th of the same month, I received a letter from the council thanking me for clearing my account with them. Below is an extract from the letter, Thank you Mr ******, I can now confirm that your account has a nil balance however there is still the bailiffs charges of £15.50 which you have to pay to them directly. On the same day that I paid off my council tax and was informed that the balance outstanding was £15.50, I called the NB to pay them off. Below is the dialogue that followed D: I am calling to pay the £15.50 outstanding. NB: Sorry sir our records show that you still owe £145.00. D: I have just paid off the balance to the council and they should have informed you accordingly. NB: Sorry sir, you need to get back to the council to ask that they inform us accordingly as your account still shows an outstanding balance of £145.00. D: Can you please inform NB that my account has been cleared off? WFC: Yes but these things take time. D: Sorry I am not buying that rubbish as you never gave me the benefit of the doubt when I was on the receiving end. WFC: All I can do is to try and notify them as soon as possible. D: Whatever! A few days had passed when I tried contacting NB and by the 7th minute of listening to pre-recorded messages, the line suddenly went dead. This is something that I noticed was very common with NB. The other thing is that they used all manner of tactics to deny me the opportunity to speak with a manager. Since I couldn’t get through to NB by phone and I considered it pointless sending them a cheque since the figures they had did not reflect my recent payment to the council, I waited for an opportunity to get through to them by phone. That opportunity never presented itself. On the morning of the 15th of February, before any of us had left for work and school, a letter was sneakily dropped through my letter box, which came from NB threatening further action if the amount of £145.00 was not cleared by x-date. Still all attempts to get through to them by phone was unsuccessful as they were only interested in dealing with Waltham Forest with regards the amount outstanding. Waltham Forest themselves could not really give me a reason why they hadn’t informed NB of my nil account balance. On the morning of the 22nd of February, another letter was sneakily dropped through my letter box. In all the times that Newlyn bailiffs turned up at my address, they never knocked on the door. They just dropped the letter and vanished into thin air. On my return from work on that faithful day the 22nd, I contacted the Waltham Forest Council and this time was not prepared to put up with monkeys but the organ grinder themselves. My persistence got me speaking to a manager called Mr ****** who constantly repeated that their systems were down and have been for quite some time. Since I wasn’t going to be deterred by a catalogue of excuses, I demanded to know why their bulldogs hadn’t been informed of my nil account? He decided to check my details manually and found that I was right that the last time they had informed the bailiffs of my payment was actually in January 2007. So was there any particular reason(s) why they hadn’t been informed of changes to my account? He replied by saying that they have been having difficulties with their computer systems which meant that they could not immediately inform the bailiff of changes to my account. No sooner after he said that, he asked for my contact number and promised to get back to me shortly. This Waltham Forest Manager got back to me in under 10 minutes and informed me that he had advised the bailiffs of my nil account. Wow! He continued; however, there are still the bailiff charges of £40.50 which has to be paid to the bailiffs directly. Hang on! What happened to the £15.50 that I was owing the bailiffs which your office informed me in a written letter dated the 2nd of February 2007; and how the on earth did you manage to get through to the bailiffs to resolve an issue your office could have resolved twenty-one days ago? Like I said, our systems were down. What! like the telephone system you mean? As far as I am concerned, I owe the bailiffs whose services you employed for reasons best known to you, the sum of £15.50. The difference of what they are demanding (£25.00) would have to be paid off by your office. THE JOKE CS: If you sir had paid the bailiffs directly instead of us, they would have had an up-to-date record of your payment and not have charged you further. D: Why should I pay the bailiffs directly when they never had an actually amount of money owed. I really never got through to anyone, and they were not willing to discuss any matter regarding changes to the figure without confirmation from you? Besides don’t you think that if your office had exercised its powers accordingly and been more flexibly with local residents with regards council tax payments, people like me would never have to be dealing with bailiffs authorised by your office to constitute an absolute nuisance? Who the hell do you think you are talking to anyway after all it took you less than 10 minutes to rectify something that should have been rectified twenty-one days earlier? You can come up with all the excuses you like as to your reasons for sending bailiffs to me and the reasons why you never informed them of changes to my account but be rest assured that by hook or crook, your office will folk out the excess on the amount owed to the bailiffs. Why on earth do I or any one in Waltham Forest have to accommodate your excuse of ‘system failure’ but your attitude towards residents who have justifiable excuses is to call on your partners in fraud. NOTE! I forgot to mention something earlier in this report; did you know that on one occasion I got through to Newlyn bailiffs and told them that they had a conflicting settlement figure from what the Waltham Forest had. Newlyn informed me that that Waltham Forest was misinformed. “Sorry remind me, who is working for who here” I thought that Waltham Forest gave you the figures and you acted on their request; that notwithstanding, why did you send me a bill dated the 13th of February 2007 for £145.00 and on another letter dated the 22nd of February 2007, a bill for £138.00 when I do not remember paying you anything between the dates specified? Sorry sir, I can't answer that and I don’t know where Waltham Forest got their figures from. So who does, “me”? This is a message to the all-round incompetent Waltham Forest Council, since I have been forced by threats of property removal by Newlyn to pay the sum of £40.50, you can be rest assured that I will be deducting £25.00 of that money from my next council tax. Where this action does not meet your approval, you can all go to hell.

I just want to say hello to all of you and thanks for having me on board.