Sorry but I have to post this. I've received a summons to go to court in the UK in 2 weeks time. I think you will all find my letter to the council highly amusing lol (Note the PS)...
From: Matt Deemer [mailto:************] Sent: ************To: Revenues Benefits; CC Counciltax; CC Benefits; CouncilSubject: Court summons - council tax<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
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To whom it may concern...<o:p></o:p>
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I will start by saying how angry I am at your disgraceful incompetence at dealing with BASIC administration requests.<o:p></o:p>
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4 (Yes FOUR) phone calls have now been placed to yourselves to advise you THAT I HAVE LEFT THE COUNTRY AND SOLD MY HOUSE.<o:p></o:p>
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As you requested, I phoned you TWO WEEKS before I left the country to advise that I wanted my council tax payments to stop as my house was empty and for sale with ************ (************).<o:p></o:p>
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I left on the 5th June 2007!There is a new owner of the property!
When I phoned you told me that everything had been noted, and that my accounts would be arranged and a final bill sent. You also asked me to leave my DIRECT DEBIT open which I did.<o:p></o:p>
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You have since sent numerous letters, even to my estate agent, which I have dealt with by calling you and again being informed "Don't worry, ignore the letter, we will cancel the payment requests".<o:p></o:p>
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THEN ANOTHER letter arrives, which my grandmother called you about on my behalf. You then TOLD HER TOO that you would deal with it and to ignore the previous letters.<o:p></o:p>
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AND NOW - You send be a god-damn COURT SUMMONS!!!!!!!! What are you people actually doing???<o:p></o:p>
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I have spent my entire life living by the law. I've worked for ************ (Public sector) since the day I left school. In the years that I've owned a house, I have paid council tax every month by direct debit without fail…And now I leave the country, and I have court summons against me! Can you people not get anything right? Why do you lie on the phone by saying that you will "Deal with it"???<o:p></o:p>
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And why the hell am I being asked to pay council tax until next March on a house that I no longer even own?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?<o:p></o:p>
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My house is sold, there's a new owner/tenant, I have not been a tenant since June 5th 2007 when the house was emptied - you were informed several times of this, and in advance.<o:p></o:p>
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The address: <?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = U1 /><U1:STREET u2:st="on"><U1:ADDRESS u2:st="on"><?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:Street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">************</U1:ADDRESS></U1:STREET></st1:address></st1:Street>.
My name: ************<o:p></o:p>
DoB: ************<o:p></o:p>
Last Payment made: ************ (You didn’t take one in June, DD was left open though)<o:p></o:p>
.... Any more details you need or do I have to come and enter everything on your systems for you?<o:p></o:p>
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What the hell do you want me to do? How many times do you have to be told? Do you want my solicitor to send you a bloody letter as well?<o:p></o:p>
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Get this sorted immediately! I want a response within 3 working days. I want to know also why you have lied on the phone 4 times. Do you think that by not recording a call you can get away with ignoring it? If they are recorded, find out who took the calls and deal with the situation appropriately.<o:p></o:p>
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I want a written response to this email confirming that my account has been dealt with.<o:p></o:p>
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I want my court summons cancelled immediately, and a written confirmation. If a bad mark goes on my name then I will take appropriate legal action against you.<o:p></o:p>
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If no response is received - expect to pay my flight costs home (More than the tax bill - trust me), and court costs yourselves, as well as my solicitor costs.<o:p></o:p>
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And if you continue to harass me with this nonsense - I'll be taking YOU to court.<o:p></o:p>
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My solicitor can be contacted if needed: ************
My estate agent can be contacted also: ************
My grandparents can be contacted: ************, who can act on my behalf.<o:p></o:p>
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If I have to arrange flights this week, it will be yourselves paying the bill (Plus court costs, don’t think for one-minute that I will be paying them because you can't deal with basic admin issues!)<o:p></o:p>
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I look forward to your explaination into this issue, and what on earth you people are doing.<o:p></o:p>
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Yours Sincerely,<o:p></o:p>
~Matthew Deemer<o:p></o:p>
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PS: I have no permanent address at the moment due to travelling in <st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place>. Reply to this email address or contact my grandparents on the above number if you have any concerns. I would prefer an email however, due to the unbelievable way in which you deal with phone calls. DO NOT SEND any more post to the <st1:City w:st="on">Eindhoven</st1:City> address you have on file (Which by the way is in the <st1:country-region w:st="on">Netherlands</st1:country-region> and not <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Belgium</st1:place></st1:country-region>)
needless to say i was PRETTY MIFFED OFF when I received the letter.
I'll let you know how they reply. I've had 2 acknowledgement emails so far saying they are investigating
Virgin Media have a very similar level of customer service...probably use the same training school.
Best of luck - don't let the buggers grind you down!
i know - as if life aint complicated enough with emigrating and sorting tax crap out - u get summoned back to your country to go to court! Gutted! lol, its humorous though.
Oh - and I WILL pay for a solicitor to take them to court, cos i wont let them get away with it. Even if it costs me 2 weeks wages it will be worth it (And ill get my money back anyhow if they loose)
I'd just let them take you to court mate,then produce everything there I did the kitemark trick with a darkvisor in court,how can something with a british standard mark be illegal m'lord .Cas dismissed
I agree with Oggy on that one mate, let them take you to court and then make them crash and burn and pay all the court costs. It might make them get their own house in order.
Good luck with it.
I really hope this gets dealt with Matt without you going to court etc. even though you are in the right. As i'm sure you know,cock ups of this nature don't really affect the offending council but they offset any costs the next year to the poor council tax payers.They all ought to be sacked they cant manage diddley,most of our roads are crap despite the huge revenues they draw in and they spend OUR money on worthless projects.Its time the British public rebelled lol.
ROFLMHO @ Matt losing his rag. Aww bless it's not like him at all
IMHO I do think ya shoulda wrote the letter when ya clamed down tho cos it came across as a rant rather than a letter of complaint.
Unfortunately we have to play the game, I.E. a stern but polite letter. Using swear words won't exactly help your case, tho I know exactly how you feel cos I've had to write many letters of complaint, to various companies, in my SHORT life time and I've wanted to rip their heads off and spit down their necks cos they are so incompetent. NTL and recruitment agencies are just two that are, up to now, the most incompetent when it comes to the admin' side of business.
No wonder I knit so many wigs, I've pulled all my hair out.
i apologised to the manager for my "strong email" and got this back...
"You have no need to apologise for your earlier e-mail, I know how I would have felt if I'd have received a summons though no fault of my own!"
Have to agree with Kwak hun cos it did come across as more of a rant and using bad language is not the way to make your point. Gotta bear in mind that the person actually opening your letter and reading it might not have anything to do with your complaint and whats happening to you. Having said that I totally sympathise with you and can understand you being angry. I`m sure you`ll get it sorted and no you won`t have to go to court.... i`ve just phoned my friend who works..................... in the council tax!!!!! Yikes, Speedy ducks and hides
i was soooo angry though. I was just banging my keyboard and raging. The above letter was after I took out all the abusive language! lol, honestly it was 10 times worse. If i have any bad marks against me ill take them straight to court
Yours was a natural reaction! things like this make your blood boil and as you know I`ve been on the receiving end of this sort of thing many times. I`ve known you too long and I know you run hot and then calm down and I can just imagine you sitting there at your keyboard with smoke coming out your ears lol. I used to go off at the deep end like that but a tip I learnt was not to react until the next day. A nights sleep always put a different slant on things and once calmer i`d then deal with it. Don`t worry cos Council Tax is just about the one thing that doesn`t affect your credit rating.... it won`t appear on any records other than the local authoritys
ah phew, thanks.
ANd i cant leave it a day, because it bothers me too much. I always try and live by the law (There are no road ones oggy says lol), but they make it so difficult sometimes. And i had no proof that i'd phoned them on previous occassions as i never took the details of who i spoke to (Lesson learnt)
Thats a lesson I had to learn too.. even now I still forget to ask who i`m speaking to. Somebody once told me to ask their name at the start of the conversation and then add "thanks Claire (or whoever) and just to confirm todays date is.... and the time is....." Whenever i`ve done that its amazing how co-operative somebody suddenly becomes!!!
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