Council tax budget.

[Soulgrowth]

Does the Gestapo run your council Carl![:0]

Debbie

[chris.g]

Very much sounds like it!!!! Surely there is somebody else you could talk to to try to sort this out other than the first-port-of-call's that usually,and evidentally, know nowt!?
Ask to speak to a manager/supervisor and explain to them, they have more authority and knowledge(usually) than the ones you seem to be dealing with.
Maybe if you could offer to pay a little extra to catch up with the month behind they would stop sending letters to you.....

[zoe]

Sorry
Have to jump in here!
I am a Council Tax Manager and it is NOT an automatic right to 12 months instalments.
The Law states that you have 10 months to pay in not 12 - it is entirely at your Councils discretion as to whether they allow it.
Usually if you have had no payment problems and they can see that you are likely to keep to this "special arrangement" they will grant, however first sign of default and you will loose it.
Also Davram, these letters are automated from the Council Tax system, they cannot possibly check every account. I would suggest that if you cannot pay until 20th the month that you start paying in March ready for 1st April, then you will never be behind. It will mean that your last payment would be 20 December . This still then gives you the 2 free months.

[Julie]

Good advice Zoe - wish you'd been around when I had probs with my council over council tax last year. Definitely made me think my council was run by imbeciles. I ended up getting my local councillor involved to make them see sense and admit they were wrong

[Skippy]

My local council is run by imbeciles! When we moved Dave thought he'd set up a DD to pay the council tax. Nothing was taken and we got a reminder. He then went on the council website and set the DD up. Again nothing was taken and another reminder was sent, telling us that if it happened again we would be liable for the year in full. When he rang the council he was told that he couldn't set the DD up online as the system doesn't work, even though it took his details and confirmed it had been set up! They have put a note on the file that the non payment wasn't our fault, but even so!

[zoe]

What happened Swans???

[Julie]

Mine was similar to your Skippy - all over a DD. We changed bank accounts and tried to set up a new DD. All forms completed but the the council didn't do their bit. I actually phoned them when the payment hadn't come out and offered to pay over the phone but no that was too easy, they needed to look into it. Cut a story short it escalated into a court summons which I refused to pay, I had email evidence of their promise to take the "non payment" off along with a log of phonecalls etc. Spoke to every person in the dept i think before going to my councillor. What do you know - had a letter of apology within days.

I used to work for the council so I know how they work [:(]

Nice to know Zoe's an exception to the rule [:)]

[zoe]

Unfortunatley we are not all perfect, however i would like to think that if one of my staff got that query they would have dealt with without it having to escalate to a complaint.
But as with all places, there are good and bad stories!
Im afraid that Councils always get a bad press!!!!