received council tax bill for £8000 from haringey council

[freyaw]

i payed a deposit to a mr brown of hackney of £300 for a bedsit in highgate in 2005, i then decided i didnt want to move there, i went to try and get the deposit back but was refused.

i left london two months later;

on monday i received a council tax bill for £5000 from haringey council i called them to explain , the customer service guy said they had received info from equifax that i had resided in haringey since 2005, he said i have to send proof to them where i have lived since then,

yesterday i received a bill for £8026.so it is escalating quite fast, i have e mailed equifax who havent replied.

i dont see why i should produce evidence for them where i have lived and my income,

i wondered if this is something that happens often and what legally i have to do

[rebel11]

Hi frey

 

Welcome to CAG

 

The guys will be happy to advise as soon as they are available.

 

Please let us know how your problem has been resolved, it could help fellow Caggers.

 

Thread has been moved to the correct forum.

[assisted blonde]

I do think it might be easier if you show evidence of where you had lived, it might not be fair but it would make sense. have you paid CT where you have lived since 2005? also it might be a good idea to check your credot records as someone could have been using your details since then?

[freyaw]

thanks for that, i lived in bedsits in london, and the owners paid. here its the same.

[revshelp]

The Council Tax Department makes decisions on the balance of probabilities if it doesn't have firm evidence. The onus will be on you to provide addresses or evidence of where you lived so that they can cross reference with outer councils to verify.

 

You also need to seek assurances that they will put your account on hold while this is resolved, they can and may well take recovery action to secure the alleged debt as its outstanding since 2005.

[mycar]

I would be asking why they had not chased me up before (or had they but you weren't at the address they are charging you for) You were not given a bill to pay (or you would have known) how were you expected to pay the bill. If it was a bedsit then was the room rented within a larger house? or it sounds like each room was registered separately???? for council tax. I would also be looking into how many years money they can go after anyway as there may well be a cut off limit, worth checking out. Chances are you have bank statements etc with other addresses etc that could be shown? Good luck with it, I find councils a nightmare.

[freyaw]

thats what i thought, have the council been sending bills there for seven years and not finding out for sure if i was there in that time, it seems unreal that they havent sent bailiffs already etc,

its like a wind up. i have no idea if tenants in that property share the council tax bill or anything, i will have to try and get contact details for the landlord of the property.

maybe thats a new way to try and get money for them, i read this council are heavily in debt.

[mycar]

My thought is that if you were only renting the room and the main house was not actually split off then it should be the landlord paying the bill and you being as listed on the council tax as living there. (Unless he has split up the house so each room has a separate bill which I have never heard of?) besides which you never lived or occuppied the place, so are not liable! Did you ever actually TELL the council you were living there? as if you haven't told them and never did live there they are basing the fact you did live there on incorrect info in which case why on earth have they even issued a bill in the first place???? (raises eyebrows) good luck someone being paid too much money in the council needs their hands slapped.

[mycar]

Forgot to say as well lol! dispute the bill now in writing (record deliver and keep a copy) if it is the same sort of thing as an issue I had over a vet bill 18 months ago once you dispute a bill you do not owe the money until the dispute has been resolved in this time. Once disputed they can not add admin charges etc after this time. I would also be pointing out to them that the equifax info given to them is factually incorrect. Can they actually add interest to your bill (from the past) as in if you do not recieve a bill how can you pay it? I would also send a recorded delivery letter and keep a copy to equifax too and give them (in the letter) a responable amount of time to answer (10 days or something like that) In the letter to the council I would also as well as disputing the bill point out equifax have given them incorrect info etc point out bills for two different amounts tell them unless they reply to you within 10 working day as far as you are concerned the bill is resolved in your favor. Also of course also mention that you ahve lived in other properties and can prove this. This way if it ever goes to court the council will have been shown not to have done their job properly and that you gave them a decent amount of time to resolve it and they chose not to. Personally I don't think they have a leg to stand on. Also if the council are asking you to prove where you lived I would ask them to prove their information is correct as that is what they are choosing to act upon!

[freyaw]

thanks for all your advice.especially about the letters and copies, the whole thing appears like a mind game but i have to take it sreiously and find out the way to go about dealing with them,the funniest thing is when you call the council, it is always a 12 minute wait-i wonder how they manage to keep it like that.its good the customer service guy at the council told me about equifax though, i keep e mailing them but they never reply. i wont call as its 0871(could be any rate).i am not really worried about this as i never lived there but registering on this site has really helped as to the way to proceed.the jump from 5000 to 8000 was wierd, but i notice they havent put the £sign in the total, so it could be 8000 haringey apples i owe them,

[ploddertom]

Forgot to say as well lol! dispute the bill now in writing (record deliver and keep a copy) if it is the same sort of thing as an issue I had over a vet bill 18 months ago once you dispute a bill you do not owe the money until the dispute has been resolved in this time. Once disputed they can not add admin charges etc after this time. I would also be pointing out to them that the equifax info given to them is factually incorrect. Can they actually add interest to your bill (from the past) as in if you do not recieve a bill how can you pay it? I would also send a recorded delivery letter and keep a copy to equifax too and give them (in the letter) a responable amount of time to answer (10 days or something like that) In the letter to the council I would also as well as disputing the bill point out equifax have given them incorrect info etc point out bills for two different amounts tell them unless they reply to you within 10 working day as far as you are concerned the bill is resolved in your favor. Also of course also mention that you ahve lived in other properties and can prove this. This way if it ever goes to court the council will have been shown not to have done their job properly and that you gave them a decent amount of time to resolve it and they chose not to. Personally I don't think they have a leg to stand on. Also if the council are asking you to prove where you lived I would ask them to prove their information is correct as that is what they are choosing to act upon!

 

In my view I would treat the above very carefully as acting on it could prove very dangerous. With Council Tax there is no provision for witholding payments while it is looked into. CT is not statute barred providing the original Liability Order was obtained within 6 years of it being due. Liability Orders do not appear on Credit History. To be able to move forward you must be able to prove you were resident elsewhere - what does the ex-landlord say.

 

PT

[freyaw]

hi, well he wasnt my landlord because i never lived there. but i havent contacted him yet, i asked the council guy what dates they had for me living there, he only said from 2005 not the date i was meant to have vacated the property.

[mycar]

Hi Plodder Tom why on earth would it be dangerous?! All OP would be doing is stating she is unable to pay until she knows the actual correct amount owing, that throws it back to the council, if asked for a breakdown by the year she can then dispute the fact she resided at the property for those dates/years. There is nothing wrong with that at all and in light of it being the truth, OP is quite within her rights to do so. If there are two bills, two different amounts and the bill is for something she never did of course she can dispute it, she doesn't have to say she is witholding payment, only that she is disputing it for xyz reasons stating that it needs to be sorted.

I find more often than not when faced in this way with those in authority, people are worried to act. But truth is truth and when people don't stick up for themselves they just sit around worrying instead and bullies win. Last year a solicitor could not answer my questions, did not ask someone else as she said she would etc then billed me for £188. I spoke to my usual solicitor about it to told me it would be very dangerous to refuse to pay her bill because solicitiors are 'bombproof'. I wrote a letter outlining why I would not pay her bill, the fact that she had not done her job properly under the sales and supplies of goods and services act 1982 and also the fact that she had not stated terms of contract in the beginning (as in her fees etc) she waved the bill and sent a pathetic letter trying to stick up for herself which had no substance at all. I have had to deal with about 5-6 cases personally myself in just 2 years.

[revshelp]

Though most councils will hold recovery action pending any dispute, the Local Government Finance Act 1992 and consequential Regulations are quite clear in stating that payment should not be withheld pending any appeals.

[freyaw]

i told the council again i never lived in the property, i received another bill waiving the original 7 years and for £347 approx, i didnt prove where i lived and i received an email from them yesterday saying the matter is now finished and that i wouldnt be hearing from them again,,,

[ss002d6252]

i told the council again i never lived in the property, i received another bill waiving the original 7 years and for £347 approx, i didnt prove where i lived and i received an email from them yesterday saying the matter is now finished and that i wouldnt be hearing from them again,,,

 

Usually the council will also be conducting an enquiry with the landlord/ other records they hold at the same time - it may simply be the case they have received evidence from elsewhere.