What lunacy - my Mum is a criminal!
Discussion
My Mum is old school, now a widow too and has just her pension for income. She doesn't have a current type of bank account and pays her bills manually.
She has to wait until a certain date to pay her bills because of waiting for her pension. She has no current bank account and cheque book so she pays cash at their offices for her council tax every month.
She's been paying her council tax in the same way for about 4 years now which is every month (not missed any payments at all in 4 years) but all of a sudden she receives a letter saying she has arrears and the local council are taking her to court in 4 working days time unless she settles the bill in full before hand.
She called them to explain that she only has her pension available at a certain date during each month and asked if they can change her council tax due date, the woman on the phone said "NO" and "YOU MUST PAY IT BY THE END OF SUNDAY" (are they open on Saturdays & Sundays then)?
She hasn't been paying by the specified day you see, she's been paying it about 10 days late and she is therefore a criminal.
What really is criminal is that good old Kent County Council are not only taking action, they're charging her another £80 in fees on top due first thing on Monday but the cheeky b1tch on the phone says "I'LL ADD THAT ON NOW"
Is it any wonder that the public sometimes get violent with these people?
My poor old Mum pays all her bills and has no bad debts.
There is absolutley no understanding, compassion or any human element in them whatsoever!
SHAME ON YOU ........KENT COUNTY COUNCIL!
She has to wait until a certain date to pay her bills because of waiting for her pension. She has no current bank account and cheque book so she pays cash at their offices for her council tax every month.
She's been paying her council tax in the same way for about 4 years now which is every month (not missed any payments at all in 4 years) but all of a sudden she receives a letter saying she has arrears and the local council are taking her to court in 4 working days time unless she settles the bill in full before hand.
She called them to explain that she only has her pension available at a certain date during each month and asked if they can change her council tax due date, the woman on the phone said "NO" and "YOU MUST PAY IT BY THE END OF SUNDAY" (are they open on Saturdays & Sundays then)?
She hasn't been paying by the specified day you see, she's been paying it about 10 days late and she is therefore a criminal.
What really is criminal is that good old Kent County Council are not only taking action, they're charging her another £80 in fees on top due first thing on Monday but the cheeky b1tch on the phone says "I'LL ADD THAT ON NOW"
Is it any wonder that the public sometimes get violent with these people?
My poor old Mum pays all her bills and has no bad debts.
There is absolutley no understanding, compassion or any human element in them whatsoever!
SHAME ON YOU ........KENT COUNTY COUNCIL!
beano500 said:
There's no evidence she's been walking down a cyclepath is there!!!????
This is just an example for bleed out from the TV Licensing school of customer service. Let's face it, your mum is trying to defraud them because she can't give them it all in a big lump, it makes extra work for them, they don't like that. I'm sure they'd be much happier if we all paid in one go and then they could take the rest of the tax year off.
That's fecking terrible. There's a reason why you don't pay in Feb/March; they give themselves 2 clear months to catch up with all those in arrears at the end of the (10 month) year. Why they should attack your mum now is beyond me; if they waited until February like normal, they'd find she was fully paid up!
Local government little Hitlers need to learn a lesson - get on the blower to the local rag asap.
Local government little Hitlers need to learn a lesson - get on the blower to the local rag asap.
Get a solicitor. NOW. Your mum mustn't have any communicaton with these cnuts without one present. They may very well try to scare you out of getting one, question why she needs one etc., but let them get stuffed and get one. From what you've said I'd be very surprised if she doesn't qualify for legal aid.
Get her to court, and she needs to explain that because of how short a time it has been, she has not been able to consult a solicitor or apply for legal aid. Because of this, she needs an adjournment of at least 2 weeks.
Once again, she musn't say a word to them that hasn't been okayed by a solicitor. That's how these people rake in their ill-gotten.
Get her to court, and she needs to explain that because of how short a time it has been, she has not been able to consult a solicitor or apply for legal aid. Because of this, she needs an adjournment of at least 2 weeks.
Once again, she musn't say a word to them that hasn't been okayed by a solicitor. That's how these people rake in their ill-gotten.
I can't believe the cheeky b1tch on the phone said to my Mum that she'd slap the £80 fine on now, some 4 odd days prior to the deadline. She was apparently releshing in it and really eager to slap this fine on.
Bloody b1tch ....I hope she has dealings with someone like herself when she gets old!
Bloody b1tch ....I hope she has dealings with someone like herself when she gets old!
Mum did get the idiots name so I'll persuade her to give the papers a call and share the information. I know it may seem trivial and there are worse things happening around us all but this made me so angry.
It just smacks of "target the weak" (and make a few extra quid out of them) to me!
I know a magistrate who had something very similar in front of them,
The 3 magistrates had to follow the law and that allowed the council to send the baylif's[sp] in.
Now they had a right old go at the council for doing this as the person had being paying every month and didnt have the money etc.
2 options
1) you pay for her and she pays you back over time.
2) go to court and risk debt collectors, you may get them to agree to pay it over a number of months but I seem to remember that was an option they where not allowed to offer for some reason.
Thats councils for you, they say its the system but they have human being in the court room who should know better!
>> Edited by themaskedavenger on Wednesday 19th October 15:07
The 3 magistrates had to follow the law and that allowed the council to send the baylif's[sp] in.
Now they had a right old go at the council for doing this as the person had being paying every month and didnt have the money etc.
2 options
1) you pay for her and she pays you back over time.
2) go to court and risk debt collectors, you may get them to agree to pay it over a number of months but I seem to remember that was an option they where not allowed to offer for some reason.
Thats councils for you, they say its the system but they have human being in the court room who should know better!
>> Edited by themaskedavenger on Wednesday 19th October 15:07
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