A Rant About Council Tax!!!!!!?

ive always paid my council tax on a weekly basis, always paying a bit more off each week, so it gets paid off a bit quicker. i missed 3 weeks payments and as id paid that bit more was left with a weeks payment to catch up.(if that makes sense?). just received a snotty reminder letter off our council dated 14th november (arrived today 23rd) saying that if the arrears were not paid within 7 days of the date at the top of the letter they would take action to recover the full ammount left to pay 300 odd pounds. what makes me so bloody mad is that there are people out there who year to year owe bloody thousands and they are chasing me for 拢20. theres no bloody justice in this country is there?

happy citizen im not short of money so dont need to take in a lodger. i just like to pay my bills on a weekly basis as my hubby gets paid weekly.


thanks anyway to all who read the rant and answered, im glad im not the only one who feels the same way. i did go and pay it though im sure the council wont have noticed lol.

I know exactly how you feel, I pay monthly, 2 weeks late on my November because I forgot , I paid it on the 14th and have had a threatening letter.
There are thousands who owe a couple of years so why pester those of us who only fall a couple of weeks behind every now and again.

Sadly, the computers spit them out automatically. It is a bloody joke, and pointless expense on their behalf.

I agree & they will send the baliff's.It once happened to us only I refused to pay the baliff's charge & threatened to go to the papers/My advice pay it.Good Luck

Yes i know where your coming from here.It's bullying tactics which belong in the playground, you are irate because you are a descent person who pays your taxes. Believe me you have more morals than any of these monkeys !!

The council tax system is a total shambles when law abiding people like you get harrassed for paltry amounts when there are others out there that openly laugh at not having to pay (Junkies etc!)
I Would hope that someone can come up with a better way of doing things, but i doubt i'll see it in my lifetime!

I agree with you. As soon as computers take over a system common sense flies out of the window. Try and get hold of a real live person and make sure it is a human being living and working in UK not the sub-continent (threy are as bad as a computer) and tell him the problem and ask what you should do. You might be surprised how helpful he is particularly if you keep your cool. Start roaring at him and he will be less inclined to help.

I pay over ten months by direct debit but I will not go into the trauma of setting that up or for water rates but it did get sorted eventually

They can't do that cos you are not refusing to pay,you're doing your best! go to the Citizens Advice Bureau.

There is no personal system. If you miss a payment the computer catches it and automatically produces a letter to be sent out. This has happened in your case. The council staff has no grudges against you but when the letter is printed they have to send it out to you. There are thousands who pay this tax and staff of the council cannot personally check on you, as they are busy doing other things.

Maria it is the same everywhere in the world. Here in south africa we call councils municipalities and if you do not pay your rates they cut your water and electricity ............... totaly against the constitution and human rights but thats what they do. All my sympathy

I've had that kind of letter. It annoys me so much. It's not like i haven't paid it in months.

I know. There was once a few years ago that they said I owed a months payment. when I got a photocopy of the cashed cheque from my bank they said it was not sufficient proof! They said they had written something on the back of it! When I pointed out that if they had written something on the back of it then they had received it and cashed it as evidenced by the photocopy of the cashed check I had provided them! That was the last I heard from the buffoons on the matter!

It is better to simply pay if you can and be debt free to the government and council, they can be difficult as it is very bureaucratic. If you need extra cash why not rent out a room to a homeless person or family then the council would pay you their housing benefit and it would be more than your council tax. Better still, rent out your whole house and move abroad, pay no mortgage, no council tax and live in Spain !

A reminder was issued as you didn't pay as billed , legally thats whats required, but if the council use the same system as mine does then the system does not recognise that payments are made in advance.

If you dont pay whats on the reminder (or contact the council) then a court summons and then ultimately liability order are issued.

Try ringing your local council dept and explaining whats happened. but at this stage (unless they are willing to withdraw) you either pay in full the arrears to stop the summons, get the summons pay the total cost by the court date and dont pay by the court date and get a liability order granted against you.

As for being 拢20 in arrears, thats where it starts, I'm currently going through over 2000 cases where bailiff action is being considered and in a lot of cases they started off with small debts and promises to pay and its oftern several thousand pounds down the line before we get anything else from them - just because your being chased doesn;t mean other aren't.