So angry!

[annwfyn]

I just got a stroppy letter from Southwark County Council.

It appears that there was a system error two years ago, which resulted in the 3QoD household being undercharged £300 on our final council tax bill when we moved out.

This error was only picked up 15 months ago.

They only bothered writing to me to demand the £300 on April 9th.

They would now like the £300 asap. In fact, they need it by the end of April, or they will have to take further action. I may appeal this in writing, but normally they don't accept staggered payments on closed accounts.

I spoke to someone called Jennifer at the Call Centre. She wouldn't give me her last name. I think I may have shouted at her rather a lot.

Still seething in anger.

I want to kill them. I want to kill them all.

Comments

[ginasketch.livejournal.com]

What? It's THEIR fucking error.

[becky-spence.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

_If_ you have to pay (and frankly it's their bloody cockup, they've taken so damn long to work it out, and frankly I wouldn't trust them to have worked it out right now anyway) they can't just demand the whole amount with 2 weeks notice. They just can't. A reasonable payment plan has to be accepted, and a court would, I am sure, back you on this.

[wildrogue.livejournal.com]

That's.... totally unreasonable of them. Write a letter of appeal and copy it to the Councillor for Southwark. A little known secret is that council members have to deal with (not just reply to) letters within 3 weeks or it counts against their annual targets and bad things happen to them. Plus it will encourage the tax department to be a bit more reasonable if they know someone higher up is on their case.

[cairmen.livejournal.com]

What everyone else said. I'm reasonably sure that this is outwith acceptable terms of payment according to UK law. Having said that, you may find that 30 days is minimum acceptable terms, which won't help that much.

Also, sympathy. That's ridiculous.

[adze.livejournal.com]

I've been here before, or at least somewhere like it.

You basically need to explain to them that you can't pay that money at this time. You're willing to pay it, but with this kind of notice, it isn't possible. Suggest some kind of payment plan, with slightly less than you can afford to pay out over the next couple of months. Chances are they'll try to bargain you up to roughly what you could have afforded in the first place. They'll most likely agree, but do it in writing so you've got proof of what you offered.

If this doesn't work with the Council, I think what they'll do next is get a debt collectorion agency involved, who are really likely to go for a deal like the one I've outlined - in my experience, they're actually quite helpful in the first instance, and they're only a pain if you're causing them trouble.

It's a sucky situation to be in though, especially when none of it is your fault.

Unless... Do you have any kind of final statement from the Council, showing you as paid up? If you do, you have great grounds for an appeal.

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

I had a final statement from the council. I kept it for six months after we closed the account. I think I threw it out in a general tidy up after deciding that the account was closed, we were living somewhere else and it was all done and dusted.

[adze.livejournal.com]

I hate it when that happens. I threw out a big box of paperwork a few months ago, because I hadn't needed it in over a year.

It looks like my original birth certificate was in there.

[adze.livejournal.com]

You probably still have decent grounds for an appeal, though - it's still worth a try, but I'd do it before offering to pay it back, for obvious reasons.

Making the appeal should also put the account on hold for the time being, so you shouldn't get any more nasty letters once they've recieved it, demanding the money.

[cairmen.livejournal.com]

Hmm. This is a long shot, but...

Request a copy of all the paperwork they have on you under the Data Protection Act. There's a chance a copy of the final statement will be in there.

Also, it'll take them ages, and you can use that as a delaying tactic, particularly if you're appealing. It's a standard lawyer's tactic, so it might well work outwith that field too.

[badgersandjam.livejournal.com]

I also think Jennifer is obliged to give you her last name. Shop her for it.

[lilitufire.livejournal.com]

I like this. And you know, I don't think it's that unreasonable to throw away statements like this. I think I'd be hosed for my last council tax bill.

Also, have a quick word with the CAB. If you need a longer word you can book time with their free duty solicitor (the Edinburgh flavour saved me several thousand pounds a few years back). I think if you propose payment terms as you can't pay they are more or less duty bound to accept, but I have been out the UK for a reasonably long time now.

And, argh - to crap councils. When Edinburgh tried to overcharge me by several hundred I found fuck off I don't have to pay the previous owners council tax arrears a useful phrase :)

[aleaxiactaxest.livejournal.com]

Depends on the kind of call centre. It's quite standard that some don't require (some don't even *allow*) you to give surnames - you do need to give some kind of identifier if you're doing that though, many use team numbers or extension numbers.

The Obligatory Cry of

[badgersandjam.livejournal.com]

[vulgarcriminal.livejournal.com]

Oh my god. What a bunch of little fuckers! Write to them and your MP recorded delivery. Then threaten to tell the Daily Mail if they're Labour. :)

[ms-rodger.livejournal.com]

Yes, I too would suggest:
1. Write to councillor. Actually, I think you may have three, in your inconsistent English multi-member system, but I may be incorrect.
2. CC your your MP. Simon Hughes?
3. CC any local GLA candidates you like. They ought to be gagging to do casework for you at the moment.
4. Go to the press if you get no joy within a week. Email addresses for both locals and nationals are quite easy to discover on the papers' websites these days.

Good luck.

[mangochutney04.livejournal.com]

heya,
oh I hear you hon. That is so wrong!! I agree with Ms Rodger - good luck with that course of action and I really hope it gets sorted.

I have also had to get very angry with Council Tax call centre staff here in Merton. In our case it wasn't quite as bad but that they changed our payment schedule but didn't think to notify us. Apparently they could have left it how it was but they decided not to. That wasn't really what got my back up, more the attitude of the person I spoke to who spoke to me in a tone of voice which made me feel about six years old, despite the fact we'd paid all our bills on time and I was the one ringing up to complain to THEM about the change in payments!

I wrote to complain about her attitude and got a response which stated that they were speaking to me "as a taxpayer" and that the authority needed to "assert its position" which roughly translated to the idea that they could talk to me anyway they like because I'm a citizen. Where's the citizen centric, all citizens are customers, ethos in that? Clearly they'd forgotten that taxpayers pay the bills and wages too!

I think I'm at third stage complaint now dealing with the Chief Exec! To me it's a matter of principle when someone is rude to me unnecessarily - it becomes a mission!

Hope you get it sorted - they have got to admit that it's totally out of order not to give you reasonable time to pay and should profusely apologise for what is after all THEIR cock-up!