Even as a business, the City Council have pretty much made our lives a misery. I am getting prettu sick of the UK, and wouldn’t mind geting out of here in the next few years.

However, I’d say that council tax departments are universally crap all over the country, and your experience is very, very far from unique. I really don’t think this issue merits moving city over it.

It’s very easy, especially when living in Birmingham, to imagine the grass is greener on the other side. But most of the things Birmingham gets dissed for exist in all British cities. Want crap, bland, uninspiring new architecture? With samey chainstores and branches of sanitised Starbucks, Pret and Tesco Metro on every street corner? Not Birmingham but London. Le sigh.

I moved into my new flat on July 20 but had picked up the keys and begun moving my belongings a few weeks earlier. I then had a Council Tax demand from Gedling dated July 6.

When I pointed out that I would only accept liability with effect from July 20, a Gedling official wrote to me and claimed that he had made enquiries to Nottingham City Council and they had told them that I had vacated my previous address on July 5 and must therefore have moved to my Woodthorpe address the following day.

Of course, even if I had moved out on July 5, it did not necessarily mean that I moved in to my new home the following day. I could for example, have taken a holiday or stayed with friends.

But I was of course puzzled, so I rang Nottingham City Council had asked them why they had told Gedling that I had vacated my previous flat on July 5. They told me that they had done nothing of the sort, but that Gedling had in fact telephoned them and given them this date!

Having caught the Gedling official out in a deliberate lie, I asked the guy at Nottingham City Council if he would be willing to confirm this in writing. He said he would.

I then wrote formally to Nottingham City Council to request this information. I got back a completely evasive and irrelevant answer.

Not to be put off, I wrote again. This time I received a reply from Nottingham saying that they did not know where the July 5 date had come from (despite having told me that it had come from Gedling).

I complained to Nottingham’s legal department. This time, they replied and said their investigation showed that it was I who had given them the date of July 5 (though this does not explain how the letter I wrote to Nottingham City Council advising them that I had moved came to be dated July 20, the date I actually moved). Also, the person who had previously confirmed that the information had come to them from Gedling claims to have no recollection of anything and was only a temporary member of staff who had since left!

Local authorities have a right to exchange information about Council Tax payers but not to falsify a person’s records. I have complained to the Local Government Ombudsman but do not hold out much hope that these liars will be brought to book. There is a lot of media coverage about benefits fraud but what about local authorities that try to make fraudulent claims?

In a separate Council Tax matter, a friend of mine, a 65 year old French lady, applied to Nottingham City Council in May last year for Housing and Council Tax benefit after her employer’s business closed down and she became unemployed. At the end of June, her application was refused. She appealed. Nottingham said that they would contact her further.

Nottingham refused her appeal and eventually notified at her previous address by which time she had however been evicted. On August 29, a new tenant moved into the flat and on September 3 the council sent her a final demand for Council Tax. They sent it to her former address even though they new she no longer lived there.

She knew nothing about the rejection of her appeal or that Nottingham now expected her to pay their Council Tax. In November, the Council issued a summons. However, they had no difficulty at all in serving this at the address to which she had since moved. The law requires local authorities to send out a final notice before issuing a summons. Had she received such a notice, she would have asked about her appeal against the refusal of her application for benefits.

I immediately contacted Nottingham City Council on my friend’s behalf, as soon as she received the summons. They ignored my letter so on the day before the hearing I called them. They agreed to adjourn the case whilst they took a fresh look into her circumstances. But the following day, they went to court and got a liability order. They served it two months later, threatening her with a visit from a bailiff.

I contacted Nottingham City Council again and they agreed to accept a payment of the Council Tax and to have the liability order set aside. I sent them a cheque and then asked them to confirm to the court their agreement to have the liability order set aside. They agreed to waive the costs but refused to have the liability order set aside and I therefore asked for my cheque back. Initially, they refused to return the cheque but after much argument they eventually did.

My friend now has to instruct a solicitor to go to court next month to have the liability order set aside (even though the order was obtained in the first place in her absence).

Why does a magistrates court have jurisidiction in these cases? Debt is not a crime. A magistrate has no power to issue an arrest warrant for failure to attend the hearing of a summons for non-payment of Council Tax (even though they can commit someone to prison for wilful failure to pay Council Tax when ordered to pay and where a person obviously has the means to pay).

And why do privatised utility companies still have the power to apply for warrants to forcible enter people’s properties?

What also annoys is that unqualified officials can apply for these orders and lay magistrates have the power to grant them, but a person against whom such an order is made is bound to employ a solicitor or barrister to represent them (unless they are able to represent themselves). A lay person cannot do so. It seems somewhat one sided to me.

Once these liability orders are made, it can cost thousands to have them set aside so that the only realistic option seems to be to pay up and bear it. But why do we have to put up with this kind of extortion?

I don’t know which is more likely: that it was lost in post for at least 3 days, or that the Council are backlogged, or just not paying attention.

I wonder what they’ll say when I call on Monday.

I’m not helping my case here.

I feel your pain man, I’ve been royally screwed about by Revenue & Customs every year for three years in a row - I still don’t have a correct P45, and that was from August last year. The fight goes on…

Now there’s something to aim for - pulling Birmingham up the ‘trees per capita’ ranking… http://www.treesforlondon.org.uk/html/informationh/citytreedata/

I’m not remotely suggesting, btw, that the work you’ve been doing isn’t needed or valuable. Christ knows, the BCC website needs a damn good kick in the pants …

i can’t remember the precise figure (& i can’t find the quote from the person who quoted it), but the energy-from-waste statistic is phenomenally good - it’s something like 80% (maybe more) of all household waste which *can* be burnt (& not recycled) at tyseley is burnt.

Your wife is getting paid for her time - getting advice from a web guy is pretty valuable too.

But yeah - sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

@all on the printing issue. Does anyone actually have the time to give up their lunch break to go to a postoffice and use one of those payment book things? It’s very odd - I’ve never paid much attention to them and yet have had a stack of them too.

I think this all comes down to what Simon said - threaten first and work out the problem later.

Anyone who operates like that is a bully in my book.

Threatening _after_ the issue has been solved, well that’s just idiocy.

When I received my letter it was the first time I had been threatened with the courts and im surprised I didn’t lose weight with the worry. If English isn’t your first language im sure you could have a mild fit.

Also had the same problem of different council tax books with subtle changes of information. What a waste of money for printing and administration.

on the nugget of good news you mentioned Stef, what document is launching on thursday?