Incorrectly billed Council Tax.

[Ghostrider0]

This is a long and messy story, so I'll try and stick to the short version to begin with.

 

Fifteen years ago I moved from my previous address to my current address, I informed my local Council (Shetland, for both addresses) that I was taking over responsibility for my current address, that I was no longer responsible for my previous address, and gave them details of whom I was given to understand was taking over responsibility for my previous address.

 

All seemed to be good, and in order, until February/March 2013, when out of the blue I received two letters at my current address, from my local Council advising me that they were now at the stage of applying to the Court for Summary Warrants against me for sums of Council Tax supposedly due for periods sometime between 2011 and 2013 at my previous address, followed shortly after, also to me at my current address by a Council Tax bill for my previous address for the whole of the 2013/14 tax year.

 

I wrote to the local Council at that time advising them I was not responsible for Council Tax at the address stated, and I had not been responsible for Council Tax at that address since relocating from it in '99. They did not reply, and I have never heard anything from them on the subject since. So, after a month or two of silence, I presumed (as you do) that they'd accepted billing me for Council Tax at my previous address had been some sort of error on their part and the issue was closed.

 

However in July this year I started receiving the usual computer generated threats from the vultures at Scott & Co. demanding I pay them the two sums of alleged overdue Council Tax for my previous address my local Council had written to me about in February 2013. I wrote to S & Co. restating I did not believe I was responsible or liable for the sums they were demanding, that I had already disputed my responsibility and liability with the Council concerned, and having not received any response from them to the contrary I believed they considered the matter closed, and consequently so did I.

 

They replied, quite curtly making it very clear they had no interest or intentions in entering in to any discussion with me on the issue, they had full intentions of proceeding forward until or unless instructed otherwise by their client, and that if I had anything to say, to take it up with their client, not them.

 

I wrote back pointing out that I believed they had a responsibility to inform their client that I disputed the charge(s) they had been engaged to pursue, that any disagreement was between their client and myself, and that if their client disputed my stance the onus was on their client to contact me, not vice versa, as I had already contacted their client concerning the matter over one year previously, and they had chosen not to address the issues I'd raised with them. Predictably I have received no reply to this

 

However, as I had no faith or trust in S & Co. actually doing anything as a result of receiving my letter, a few days later I again wrote to my local Council, restating I did not accept I had any responsibility or liability for any Council Tax at my previous address which they believed may be due for any period after 1999, and this time providing them with a timeline of events for the last fifteen years for the address, as they are known to me, as backup. Finally I requested that I would be very interested in learning how they came to believe that I was responsible and liable for any such charges, especially taking in to consideration the timeline I had just provided them with. Unsurprisingly I have received no reply to that letter either.

 

Meantime S & Co. equally predictably have been racking up the anti, and churning out steadily escalating dire threats as regular as clockwork. Last week, one month after last writing to both S & Co. and my local Council, I emailed both the front desk at my local Council's finance dept. and direct to the Debt Recovery person within the same finance dept. demanding an explanation of just what they thought they were trying to achive, and what on earth did they think they were trying to do - again predictably, neither email has been replied to.

 

So, where do I go from here?

 

From what I can gather legally disputing a Summary Warrant is effectively a non-starter (despite IMHO that being completely contrary to the principles of justice). Is this actually the case? Do we really have a system in place where a local Council can bill just about anyone they choose to for Council Tax, and then hide behind a wall of silence and hired guns to steal whatever sum of money they choose to off that individual, and that individual has absolutely no legal comeback whatsoever to dispute or challenge either their liability to pay, or the sum demanded?

 

Is there any viable avenue of challenge and redress in this situation, or am I simply going to have to sit back and wait until they decide to make me bankrupt, and let the argument as to whether this bill legally constitutes one of my liabilities or not, be settled in that Court? If there isn't, I can't see what's going on here as being anything other than legalised extortion/theft etc.

[IdaInFife]

I am quite shocked you have had no reply at all from the local council.

 

Its the head of finance you would now need to go to to dispute this and normally these details are easily found however for your council they are not.

 

I would give them a quick call and ask for the name and email address for the head of finance.

 

Ive never seen an issue like yours that has not been easily resolved before with front room staff.

[Ghostrider0]

Thanks for your reply IdaInFife. I agree that this could and should have been quickly resolved by front line staff, and indeed I thought that it had been when I received no reply or other correspondence from them concerning the issue after writing to them in spring 2013.

 

As you have already realised, contacting any one specific individual member of staff within the Shetland Council is difficult to impossible, on account of their long term apparent policy of only making available front desk contact details to the public. Where, by all appearances, when used, front desk staff cherry pick who sees what, when, and if at all, as they see fit. The only reason I had a direct email to the Debt Collection person was on account of them having emailed me at some point in the past on a wholly unrelated matter, and I'd kept the email.

 

As it was near the end of last week that I sent my emails to finance, my current thoughts are to wait and see what happens by the end of this week, and if there's no change attempt to make direct contact with someone like the finance director or the Council Chief Executive. In all honesty, based on past results with attempting to resolve other matters elsewhere within the Council machine, I have little faith in being able to obtain contact direct details for either, but at least I can say I tried....My local councillor I doubt would be able to help much, as in previous discussion with them they have readily admitted they find the entire Council civil service an almost impenetrable barrier who rely on "we are not at liberty to discuss individual cases" as a get out of jail card for virtually everything. Beyond that I guess there's only the Ombudsman....

 

At the end of the day its the legislation that appears to be flawed, Councils are run by humans (although sometimes you do seriously wonder....), and errors, etc will happen. There needs to be effective safeguards in place to have them resolved to both parties satisfaction both quickly and fairly, otherwise Councils can pretty much do what they like and hide behind a wall of silence and uncooperation to get away with it, as mine appear to be of mind to do with this.