Probably because they’ve been screwed by years of real terms cuts from central government and ever increasing demands on council services that they are legally obligated to provide
timmystwin on
There’s a guy in Exeter who shares my name.
Except he spells the first name *slightly* differently.
The debt collectors still ring up my work every now and then saying I need to pay it.
Now, I don’t have where I work on anything public except linkdin. And that’s spelt correctly.
But the companies they get to chase it still chase me. They’re fucking ruthless. Ringing up work and shit. It’s at the point where Reception knows to ask for the address of who’s being chased so I don’t have to deal with it.
Feel their efforts might be better served getting more competent debt collectors tbh.
00DEADBEEF on
> Official figures show the level of council tax arrears rose by 9% to £6bn in England last year as people struggled with cost of living problems such as rent increases and soaring energy bills. More than 3 million people have faced bailiff or enforcement action because of council tax arrears in the last two years.
Well let’s get rid of the single person discount, that will surely help /s
HorseBarrierRoad on
Mine keeps trying to make the rest of us pay it for them.
COVontheTyne on
TBF, I work for the council and people not paying council tax are a massive problem, and we just don’t have the administrative resources to chase them. This is why we can’t keep calling and sending letters; we don’t have the time or money to.
A lot of services are hand-to-mouth financially sadly. We can’t keep dipping into our reserves as they’re nearly empty. We need people to pay on time.
ImSoNormalImsoNormal on
Almost got sent to court for 500 pounds the council said I owed them for the two months that I wasn’t either in college nor uni. Had to deal with debt collectors, it was a nightmare.
Supersubie on
Man me and my friends got royally fucked by Barnet Council.
In 2014 we left our Uni house and had spent a few months in it whilst not being students. we actually attempted to pay this off before we left but it turns out there was like £15 that was not paid off. A payment was made but it was for the wrong amount by £15.
Fast Forward to 2023 I get a debt collection agency that finds me. Most of my mates had left the country but suddenly they got ahold of my details somehow.
We were on the hook for over £800. They had sent letter after letter to the address that they KNEW we had moved out of. They knew we had moved out of it because we had made the final payment and spent a long time on the phone with them working out exactly what was owed.
Each letter added to the fine total. Then it went to court which got us fined further. But the court summons were sent to the house they knew we had moved out of. That happened a few more times with more fines being added on.
Then I get the letter and they transfered all the debt to me to recover. Offered us a lower fee if we could pay it off in full. Luckily I have done really well for myself since uni and got into personal finance so I could front my friends all of the money and lower the fee and let them just pay me back slowly over a few months.
But those fuckers man. a £15 fine left to roll on for years and year and build up. With the only attempt to contact us being to a house they knew we no longer lived in. FUCK YOU BARNET COUNCIL
realmofconfusion on
I was taken to court by my council for “non-payment” of council tax many years ago.
I pointed out to them, as I had every year before, that although they insisted on payments being made on the 1st of the month, since I got paid on the 15th of every month that I would pay them on the 15th of the month, which I did, never missing a payment.
I wasn’t prepared to pay them early unless they were willing to give me a discount (which of course they were not prepared to do, and neither had I really expected them to.)
I told the council that my understanding of the law required only “regular monthly payments” which was precisely what they were getting. I asked them to show me the legislation that meant they could demand payment on a specific date, they could/would not do so (I would have complied if that’s how the legislation was written). They still took me to court (Magistrates) for “non-payment”.
When my turn came at court, I argued that this was nothing more than vexatious litigation, that I always made regular monthly payments, had never missed a payment, and paid my bills as soon as I got paid. The Magistrate asked why I couldn’t pay a month in advance, so I told him that I was prepared to do so if the council gave me a small discount for early payment (there were penalties for late payment of course) which he said was a fair point and asked the council’s lawyer if they would offer a small discount for early payment, they would not.
I pointed out that my understanding of the law requiring “regular monthly payments” which the magistrate agreed I was making, and that I had previously asked the council to show me in the statute if that was incorrect which they had not done. He dismissed the councils claim, did not award them court costs, and stated “I do not expect the council to demand full payment of the remaining balance in this case.” and moved on to the next case.
A few days later I got an obvious template letter from the council demanding full payment of the balance (in direct defiance of the court’s order) but with the bit about court costs having been manually crossed out in blue biro.
This made me a little peeved to put it mildly so I went down to the council office to make an official complaint and told them I would be reporting them for contempt of court for not following the court’s instruction.
Their argument was that it was “an automatic letter”, but as someone had taken that letter out of the pile to manually edit the bit about court costs, at that point it was no longer an automatic letter and that they should have removed the part about immediate payment as well.
I did report them to the court for contempt (nothing ever came of that), but I did eventually (after a lot of complaining) get a personal, handwritten letter from the council head of finance apologising for their error and offering a compensation payment (£50 I think it was) which I gladly accepted.
The next year they changed their payment dates to 1st of the month, 15th of the month, or last day of the month, so a victory for common sense eventually, but absolute jobsworth bastards for putting me through all that and for lying when saying my court appearance was for “non-payment”.
J8YDG9RTT8N2TG74YS7A on
Some don’t.
I know a guy who hasn’t paid council tax in 4 years. The council didn’t send him a bill so he hasn’t volunteered the fact that they haven’t billed him.
He bought his council flat and the council seem to have cancelled his direct debit for the council tax when they cancelled the one for his rent, and they’ve just not realised.
9 Comments
Probably because they’ve been screwed by years of real terms cuts from central government and ever increasing demands on council services that they are legally obligated to provide
There’s a guy in Exeter who shares my name.
Except he spells the first name *slightly* differently.
The debt collectors still ring up my work every now and then saying I need to pay it.
Now, I don’t have where I work on anything public except linkdin. And that’s spelt correctly.
But the companies they get to chase it still chase me. They’re fucking ruthless. Ringing up work and shit. It’s at the point where Reception knows to ask for the address of who’s being chased so I don’t have to deal with it.
Feel their efforts might be better served getting more competent debt collectors tbh.
> Official figures show the level of council tax arrears rose by 9% to £6bn in England last year as people struggled with cost of living problems such as rent increases and soaring energy bills. More than 3 million people have faced bailiff or enforcement action because of council tax arrears in the last two years.
Well let’s get rid of the single person discount, that will surely help /s
Mine keeps trying to make the rest of us pay it for them.
TBF, I work for the council and people not paying council tax are a massive problem, and we just don’t have the administrative resources to chase them. This is why we can’t keep calling and sending letters; we don’t have the time or money to.
A lot of services are hand-to-mouth financially sadly. We can’t keep dipping into our reserves as they’re nearly empty. We need people to pay on time.
Almost got sent to court for 500 pounds the council said I owed them for the two months that I wasn’t either in college nor uni. Had to deal with debt collectors, it was a nightmare.
Man me and my friends got royally fucked by Barnet Council.
In 2014 we left our Uni house and had spent a few months in it whilst not being students. we actually attempted to pay this off before we left but it turns out there was like £15 that was not paid off. A payment was made but it was for the wrong amount by £15.
Fast Forward to 2023 I get a debt collection agency that finds me. Most of my mates had left the country but suddenly they got ahold of my details somehow.
We were on the hook for over £800. They had sent letter after letter to the address that they KNEW we had moved out of. They knew we had moved out of it because we had made the final payment and spent a long time on the phone with them working out exactly what was owed.
Each letter added to the fine total. Then it went to court which got us fined further. But the court summons were sent to the house they knew we had moved out of. That happened a few more times with more fines being added on.
Then I get the letter and they transfered all the debt to me to recover. Offered us a lower fee if we could pay it off in full. Luckily I have done really well for myself since uni and got into personal finance so I could front my friends all of the money and lower the fee and let them just pay me back slowly over a few months.
But those fuckers man. a £15 fine left to roll on for years and year and build up. With the only attempt to contact us being to a house they knew we no longer lived in. FUCK YOU BARNET COUNCIL
I was taken to court by my council for “non-payment” of council tax many years ago.
I pointed out to them, as I had every year before, that although they insisted on payments being made on the 1st of the month, since I got paid on the 15th of every month that I would pay them on the 15th of the month, which I did, never missing a payment.
I wasn’t prepared to pay them early unless they were willing to give me a discount (which of course they were not prepared to do, and neither had I really expected them to.)
I told the council that my understanding of the law required only “regular monthly payments” which was precisely what they were getting. I asked them to show me the legislation that meant they could demand payment on a specific date, they could/would not do so (I would have complied if that’s how the legislation was written). They still took me to court (Magistrates) for “non-payment”.
When my turn came at court, I argued that this was nothing more than vexatious litigation, that I always made regular monthly payments, had never missed a payment, and paid my bills as soon as I got paid. The Magistrate asked why I couldn’t pay a month in advance, so I told him that I was prepared to do so if the council gave me a small discount for early payment (there were penalties for late payment of course) which he said was a fair point and asked the council’s lawyer if they would offer a small discount for early payment, they would not.
I pointed out that my understanding of the law requiring “regular monthly payments” which the magistrate agreed I was making, and that I had previously asked the council to show me in the statute if that was incorrect which they had not done. He dismissed the councils claim, did not award them court costs, and stated “I do not expect the council to demand full payment of the remaining balance in this case.” and moved on to the next case.
A few days later I got an obvious template letter from the council demanding full payment of the balance (in direct defiance of the court’s order) but with the bit about court costs having been manually crossed out in blue biro.
This made me a little peeved to put it mildly so I went down to the council office to make an official complaint and told them I would be reporting them for contempt of court for not following the court’s instruction.
Their argument was that it was “an automatic letter”, but as someone had taken that letter out of the pile to manually edit the bit about court costs, at that point it was no longer an automatic letter and that they should have removed the part about immediate payment as well.
I did report them to the court for contempt (nothing ever came of that), but I did eventually (after a lot of complaining) get a personal, handwritten letter from the council head of finance apologising for their error and offering a compensation payment (£50 I think it was) which I gladly accepted.
The next year they changed their payment dates to 1st of the month, 15th of the month, or last day of the month, so a victory for common sense eventually, but absolute jobsworth bastards for putting me through all that and for lying when saying my court appearance was for “non-payment”.
Some don’t.
I know a guy who hasn’t paid council tax in 4 years. The council didn’t send him a bill so he hasn’t volunteered the fact that they haven’t billed him.
He bought his council flat and the council seem to have cancelled his direct debit for the council tax when they cancelled the one for his rent, and they’ve just not realised.