Hi all
I dont know if anyone can help with this... Its a long story so I will try and make it as brief as possible.
I had to move into council accomodation a little over 10 years ago as I split with my husband. I was given a house in my local area where I lived quite happily until my two austic boys could no longer share a bedroom.
I had a real fight with social services and made a complaint about the council which kind of went to the ombudsman, just one day after I posted the letter, they gave me this house which was adapted specially for my needs.
When I first got into debt and sought help from a professional, I was told I could claim disabilty relief on my council tax, but I had lived here a year before I knew I could claim this. They agreed to back date this for me but instead of taking the money off the bill they made it an arrears and sent in the baliffs. After a bit of a fight, it was eventually put right. They called the baliffs back but it did cause a lot of stress.
Sometime last year someone complained about the wasteland attached to my house, I was told it was nothing to do with me, so I wrote back telling them that this was not my land, etc... They kept on threatening me with action if I didnt tidy it up, but I kept on saying it was not my problem and how about they clean it up. This is the only council rented house in this close, situated between a vast cemetary and golf course, it seems it was forgotten by the council some years ago.
I managed to get someone out from the council to inspect the land and say what was what, he said it was owned by bla de bla and it was their job to maintain it. Nothing happened and again I recieved complaint letters, one after another which I did reply to. The last one I wrote was a complaint about getting harrassed, it was in my book. My gardens are beautiful and maintained, I love to garden, I even said if they would give me the wasteland, I would make it and keep it nice.. Nothing happened.
Someone responded to my complaint by phone, they phoned and said they would come out and sort it, they came out and we had a row. They have never maintained this house, there are a lot of repairs still outstanding, the reason they cant do these repairs is because its off the beaten track and they dont usually have people in this area. I wrote to the top person and make a complaint, they were talking contracts, where is their side of it?
Well I have now recieved a letter from a debt collector, I do not understand this. It says that I owe money from the previous house. I was supposed to replace the origional doors (the previous tenants put brand new wooded doors in which were panelled, they also panelled the dining room and laminated the floors. There were also two ponds in the garden. They said this has been put right at a cost to them, but they inspected the house before I moved there, I didnt do any of that work. The only thing I did do, was leave some rubbish behind, I dont mind being charged for that but the other things??? I didnt do.
I have phoned the debt collectors to say I do not owe this money, its for five hundred pounds. I feel that they are somehow just being awkward. What can I do?? I would willingly pay for anything that I am responsible for, such as the rubbish I left. I only had ten days to move, I couldnt do this on my own, I couldnt get the time off work, I did pay two lots of rent as they said I had to.
I do feel that this council are just being unfair, yes I have been the biggest pain in the nect for them, I know that but only for the sake of my children. Social services got it wrong, my complaint was upheld. They had to put things right, they didnt have to like it but is there any need for them to be so bitchy??
I have been here two years almost, I could have included this bill in my full and final, I didnt as I didnt know about it. Is there any way a person can dispute a charge, when its already gone to debt collectors?
