Brand new and in need of help! - Council Tax - Glasgow

[thejo_mo]

Hi there

 

I'm new and came across the forum through google since like many other people it seems I’m having a council tax related nightmare! I have to say you've already helped just by being here

 

Anyway, to my tale, I received a formal notice for payment from a collections company called BPO this week (May 16th) , acting on behalf of Glasgow City Council, for unpaid council tax totalling almost £3,000 from 2004-2007! I’ve never dealt with a debt collector before and am completely flummoxed.

 

After phoning the collections company and GCC I found that most of the period the debt relates to was after I’d moved out and was living with my parents, the rest of the time (6 months!) I was either a full time student with exemption in place, or registered unemployed and in receipt of housing and council tax benefit from Glasgow City Council. I’m also fairly certain that I informed GCC that I was leaving, mainly to stop the housing benefit.

 

When I moved out of this property, I went to live with my parents and so have no utilities/council tax bills to prove this. My bank account was always registered to their address so doesn’t show the change at the right time. Also, because this is almost 7 years ago, I have destroyed or lost any tenancy agreement. I can’t even remember the landlord’s name never mind have contact details.

 

Glasgow city council say it’s up to me to prove that I moved out when I said I did and say the tenancy agreement is the only thing to prove this.

 

I’ve put in a freedom of information request to the DWP who (hopefully!) can show that I changed the address where my benefits were being paid to at this time but this could take up to 40 days to process and I don’t even know if GCC will accept this as the right evidence.

 

So- sorry for the ramble- I’m concerned about:;

 

1) The debt collection agency trying to recover the debt before I get the evidence I need. I know that sometimes data protection doesn’t give you the right info and you need a few attempts. Am I likely to come home and find bailiffs on the doorstep?

 

2) What should I do in the meantime. I’ve written to GCC and the debt collectors to ask for time to assemble my evidence through FOI requests - is it likely they’ll agree to this?

 

3) Will this be affecting my credit rating now and if not, when will it start to?

 

I now live in London so citizen’s advice down here are helpful but don’t know the ins and outs of scots law and CAB in Scotland can’t help because they’re funded independently. If anyone has been through something similar in scotland and with Glasgow City Council in particular I’d really appreciate hearing how you dealt with it and what the outcome was.

 

Thanks loads X

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

Council Tax debts are not reported on credit files.

Tell the debt collection sgency in writting that the

account is disputed.

What is the DCA chasing this, and what action are

they ''threatening''?

[thejo_mo]

Phew- that's a relief, thanks! Have written to the council cc'ing int he DCA (registered post) to dispute the debt and tell them I'm trying to find the records. The agency are BPO collections and at the moment they're demanding payment 'immediately' with failure to pay going to legal action or a home visit.

[citizenB]

Have moved you to the forum that "Deals with Debt in Scotland" for the moment.

[maroondevo52]

Hi,

 

I take it you were not registered for Council Tax purposes at your parents house.

[dx100uk]

Many scottish councils use dca's for CTAX debts.

 

don't write off any action they could take.

 

get that info PDQ

 

dx

[IdaInFife]

A FOI won't get you your paperwork from the dwp.

 

You need to send the DWP and the Glasgow city council a sar.

 

Were you the only tenant of the property?

[thejo_mo]

Thanks everyone.

 

I wasn't registered for council tax at my parents as they are the bill payers so I have nothing.

 

Thanks for the advice re: SARs- will do that today.

 

I wasn't the only tenant- I had a flatmate but he was a registered student with exemption in place.

[thejo_mo]

Just a quick update this in case anyone else is going through something similar. Having spoken to a number of friends from Glasgow lately, sounds like this is pretty common at the moment.

 

I duly sent of SARs to the DWP and Glasgow City Council. Unfortunately, the DWP only retain your files for 5 years if you don't have any business case with them (benefits etc.) so that was pretty unhelpful. However, my file from Glasgow City Council had a copy of the tenancy agreement I used when claiming housing benefit, evidence of my council tax benefit status and also a record of a phone conversation where I informed them I was moving house. Because this must be held in a different department this wasn't on record with council tax- how frustrating!

 

So I've sent all of my evidence to them a few weeks ago (also managed to dig out some bank statements from my parents loft and a list of transactions showing my final rent payment-), but have yet to have anything come back from GCC or BPO collections. I haven't contacted BPO other than to inform them that I dispute liability and to request all correspondence in writing and haven't heard anything from them in over a month - I've been dealing directly with GCC council tax department.

 

Anyway, this seems to be a slow process so I'll update with further outcomes as I have them.

[dx100uk]

thanks

 

dx