Council tax account not updated

[Claudio Calvelli]

I see that the "My account" thing on the council tax website was last
updated in November and (obviously) doesn't show the December and
January payments, showing it 2 months in arrears.

The same thing happened a few years ago and they (naturally) ignored all
my enquiries and then went and obtained a summary warrant for money
which wasn't owned (they only "found" the missing payments when I went
to the CAB and asked about taking the council to court for
maladministration - they phoned the council and told them that, and the
council somehow "found" the missing receipts and informed the sheriff
and Scott&Co that the warrant was issued by "mistake").

I wonder if anybody else has the same thing in their account. This
being the council, I'm not sure whether it is their standard
incompetence, or they are trying to see if anybody forgot that they've
already paid.

C

[Geoff Pearson]

Post by Claudio Calvelli
I see that the "My account" thing on the council tax website was last
updated in November and (obviously) doesn't show the December and
January payments, showing it 2 months in arrears.
The same thing happened a few years ago and they (naturally) ignored all
my enquiries and then went and obtained a summary warrant for money
which wasn't owned (they only "found" the missing payments when I went
to the CAB and asked about taking the council to court for
maladministration - they phoned the council and told them that, and the
council somehow "found" the missing receipts and informed the sheriff
and Scott&Co that the warrant was issued by "mistake").
I wonder if anybody else has the same thing in their account. This
being the council, I'm not sure whether it is their standard
incompetence, or they are trying to see if anybody forgot that they've
already paid.
C

I pay by direct debit - that seems to work.

[Windmill]

Post by Geoff Pearson

Post by Claudio Calvelli
I see that the "My account" thing on the council tax website was last
updated in November and (obviously) doesn't show the December and
January payments, showing it 2 months in arrears.
The same thing happened a few years ago and they (naturally) ignored all
my enquiries and then went and obtained a summary warrant for money
which wasn't owned (they only "found" the missing payments when I went
to the CAB and asked about taking the council to court for
maladministration - they phoned the council and told them that, and the
council somehow "found" the missing receipts and informed the sheriff
and Scott&Co that the warrant was issued by "mistake").
I wonder if anybody else has the same thing in their account. This
being the council, I'm not sure whether it is their standard
incompetence, or they are trying to see if anybody forgot that they've
already paid.
C

I pay by direct debit - that seems to work.

Nowadays they try hard to force everyone to do that, but past
experience dating back to the days before they used direct debits means
that I don't trust them not to take from my account whatever they feel
like, potentially causing a cascading series of difficulties (an event
which has been reported by some unfortunates).

Instead I set up a Standing Order (they tried some time ago to say that
you couldn't do that, but since they also told you how to make a
payment directly from your bank account that seemed pretty silly. And
arrogant).

[Claudio Calvelli]

[...]

Post by Windmill

Post by Geoff Pearson
I pay by direct debit - that seems to work.

Nowadays they try hard to force everyone to do that, but past
experience dating back to the days before they used direct debits means
that I don't trust them not to take from my account whatever they feel
like, potentially causing a cascading series of difficulties (an event
which has been reported by some unfortunates).

Funnily enough, that's the same reason I don't pay by direct debit, even
though I use that for everything else.

I don't doubt that they do remember to take the money every month.
That's not the issue, the question for me is: will they also remember to
update their records at the same time or just claim they haven't taken
the money and it must be paid again? Because that's what they keep
doing. (Perhaps it needs to be reported as either fraud or theft).

C

[Windmill]

Post by Claudio Calvelli
[...]

Post by Windmill

Post by Geoff Pearson
I pay by direct debit - that seems to work.

Nowadays they try hard to force everyone to do that, but past
experience dating back to the days before they used direct debits means
that I don't trust them not to take from my account whatever they feel
like, potentially causing a cascading series of difficulties (an event
which has been reported by some unfortunates).

Funnily enough, that's the same reason I don't pay by direct debit, even
though I use that for everything else.
I don't doubt that they do remember to take the money every month.
That's not the issue, the question for me is: will they also remember to
update their records at the same time or just claim they haven't taken
the money and it must be paid again? Because that's what they keep
doing. (Perhaps it needs to be reported as either fraud or theft).

If you or I did such a thing, it would be fraud or theft, but in their
case it isn't even corruption, just staffing/training problems. (Send
money, my empire isn't growing!)
It's a general rule - as someone pointed out, if an individual kills
another, that's murder, but if a country kills a million that's war.
(Speaking of which, I just read a report which claimed that
Litvinenko's father visited him in hospital and was told by his son
that he'd converted to Islam. Is that allowed?)

[Windmill]

Post by Claudio Calvelli
I see that the "My account" thing on the council tax website was last
updated in November and (obviously) doesn't show the December and
January payments, showing it 2 months in arrears.
The same thing happened a few years ago and they (naturally) ignored all
my enquiries and then went and obtained a summary warrant for money
which wasn't owned (they only "found" the missing payments when I went
to the CAB and asked about taking the council to court for
maladministration - they phoned the council and told them that, and the
council somehow "found" the missing receipts and informed the sheriff
and Scott&Co that the warrant was issued by "mistake").
I wonder if anybody else has the same thing in their account. This
being the council, I'm not sure whether it is their standard
incompetence, or they are trying to see if anybody forgot that they've
already paid.

I've had about 20 years of this kind of thing. Typed a lot of stuff in
reply to your post, but really it was mostly just me venting my spleen.
So I junked it.

As you've maybe discovered, telephoning Scott&Co's is _NOT_ a realistic
option unless you enjoy listening to "Spring" or 'all our operatives
are busy' or whatever.
Perhaps more usefully, have you considered getting their FAX number so
that you can contact them directly? (Telling the Council that you've
done so, of course).

The CAB are helpful and may add legitimacy to a complaint, but it
doesn't hurt to DIY a bit, especially now that our Glorious Leader has
cut their funding.

[Claudio Calvelli]

Post by Windmill
The CAB are helpful and may add legitimacy to a complaint, but it
doesn't hurt to DIY a bit, especially now that our Glorious Leader has
cut their funding.

Yes, indeed. The temptation is to contact the Sheriff Court directly
and inform them that the Council provided them with false information.
While I of course would provide proper evidence of that. But I have to
wait for them to make the usual "mistake" again first, and I am trying
to be proactive (which is probably the reason the Cancer^W Council hate
me, it would be against all their procedure to do anything before it's
too late).

C

[Windmill]

Post by Claudio Calvelli

Post by Windmill
The CAB are helpful and may add legitimacy to a complaint, but it
doesn't hurt to DIY a bit, especially now that our Glorious Leader has
cut their funding.

Yes, indeed. The temptation is to contact the Sheriff Court directly
and inform them that the Council provided them with false information.
While I of course would provide proper evidence of that. But I have to
wait for them to make the usual "mistake" again first, and I am trying
to be proactive (which is probably the reason the Cancer^W Council hate
me, it would be against all their procedure to do anything before it's
too late).

Many years ago I was sufficiently hot under the collar about some piece
of Council high-handedness to ask at a kind of public counter in the
Sheriff Court building what I could do about it.
Don't remember the details, but effectively the answer was 'nothing'.
Obviously that must be untrue, for those who know their way around, but
probably correct for most of us.
I left, muttering about the Sheriff of Nottingham.
(Aren't the Sheriff Courts funded by the cities?)

Perhaps the Council have a blacklist of people they dislike, which
might well include those who don't know what to kiss and when, but I'd
be surprised if anyone there hated you. Too much effort!

It does now seem obvious why Councils request so much information from
the intelligence? agencies - they want to correlate it with all the
bank details they get from Direct Debitors. Probably get even more from
the G4S meter readers, when that group isn't mismanaging prisons and
prisoners.

Like everyone high and low, I have sometimes 'done that which I should
not have done, and left undone the things I should have done', but that
includes few offences and fewer crimes, mostly things like occasional
brief illegal parking.
Doesn't mean that I want to make it easier for someone to go on a
fishing expedition though. God knows how many little-known laws are on
the books, or how the known ones may be reinterpreted.

It would be good if large organisations, public and private, would try
not to set things up in such a way as to encourage cheating, for then
there'd be less reason to snoop, and fewer opportunities to get it all
wrong.

[August West]

Post by Windmill
(Aren't the Sheriff Courts funded by the cities?)

No, they're not.

They're run by the Scottish Court Service, which is an independent body
corporate established by the Judiciary and Courts (Scotland) Act 2008 on
1 April 2010. It is funded by the Scottish Government.

[Windmill]

Post by August West

Post by Windmill
(Aren't the Sheriff Courts funded by the cities?)

No, they're not.
They're run by the Scottish Court Service, which is an independent body
corporate established by the Judiciary and Courts (Scotland) Act 2008 on
1 April 2010. It is funded by the Scottish Government.

Relieved (slightly) to hear that.