Not paying your council tax.
A couple of years ago I decided not to pay my council tax. "What's the worst that can happen?", I thought, forgetting about the fact that they can throw you in the joint for it.

A year went by, and polite letters from the council turned into red ones, threats of court action, and eventually bailiffs.

One day, another letter turned up demanding full and final payment within 7 days, or the debt would be returned to the courts and a warrant for my arrest would be issued.

Shit, I thought - I'd better pay it. Not a biggie, I thought - I owed them about £1400, and I could clear it in about 6 months. I phoned them offering £230 a month. Fair enough.

Except the woman on the phone was obviously a bit thick and kept repeating the same thing - "You need to pay it in full, today."

Yeah. I'll just pull £1400 out of my arse. Good thinking, fucko. This went on for a couple of weeks - I kept making them ever-higher offers of monthly repayments which would already stretch my finances, and they kept refusing. Eventually I got a bit pissed off, and decided to put it in writing. The letter went something like this.

"This is my final offer. I owe you £1400; I cannot afford to clear the balance in full, so I will give you £200 a month; you can either accept this, or you will not get your money at all. Your choice."

I didn't hear anything for a month. One day I got a phone call. "Due to your circumstances, we can offer to reduce the debt to £900 as long as you can clear the balance today."

"Yeah, but I can't do that. Can I pay you monthly?"
"Yeah, how about £75 a month over 12 months?"

Of course I accepted, and I paid it off.

It still boggles my mind how the council (or the debt collection company working for them) willingly screwed themselves out of £500 AND accepted a lower repayment, just because they were too stubborn to accept my initial offer. How does that work?

*Edited as my figures were wrong. These are all approximate, I can't remember the exact ones. It did happen, honest.

In short - if you ever find yourself in debt, don't be intimidated by debt collectors. If you make them a reasonable offer, they will accept in the end.
(Flap Burger hasn't really got a burger made of flaps, Tue 22 Jun 2010, 12:02, 27 replies)

So ... you decided to get yourself into debt, made a concerted effort to do so, and then
got pissed off when they asked for their money?

Forgive me for being thick, but I'm not sure I understand.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Tue 22 Jun 2010, 12:13, closed)

Did you bother reading the story?
There's not much point in asking someone for money if they haven't got it. More to the point, I made them several very reasonable offers of payment, which they refused.

And yes, I know not paying one's council tax is a bloody stupid thing to do, but I was young and dumb back then.
(Flap Burger hasn't really got a burger made of flaps, Tue 22 Jun 2010, 12:23, closed)

Yes.
You said you decided not to pay your council tax.

I don't see why you did that in the first place, and if it was some statement against The Man, etc, why you felt you had the right to be pissed off when they asked for their money back.

Sure you didn't have £1400 to pull out of your arse - hence you can pay it in installments from the off.

I really don't understand. To me it seems you're saying "I deliberately faulted on my repayments - how dare they ask for their money!"
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Tue 22 Jun 2010, 12:26, closed)

It's no problem
I'll just pay a bit extra to cover it.
(Vice Admiral Sir Charles Cockbrush KCB MBE DSO, who is finding it increasingly difficult to log into b3ta.com wants to duck your aunt and kick your puppy, Tue 22 Jun 2010, 12:40, closed)

RE: debt n stuff
Bit of a dull 'first post', but it's more about them refusing to accept £230 a month all huffily, then turning around and offering to accept less money and less per month.

Having been in debt, it's my advice too, they love to pressure, but essentially, most of them realise that you only have so much money after bills and eating, and if you show them that you're making a fair offer from what you have, they'll grudgingly accept.

£20 a month is a better offer than paying £100s to send bailiffs around and getting an old sofa and a battered TV and video recorder out of it.
(Karmageddon, Tue 22 Jun 2010, 12:26, closed)

Yes, but deliberately putting yourself in that position in the first place, as the OP says, negates all that righteousness.

( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Tue 22 Jun 2010, 12:27, closed)

^this
"Yeah. I'll just pull £1400 out of my arse. Good thinking, fucko."
"Except the woman on the phone was obviously a bit thick"

I now have a vision of a toothless mong, sitting in a green house - throwing cluster bombs everywhere
(likeajackhammer, Tue 22 Jun 2010, 12:31, closed)

Me too.
/couldn't resist... ;-)
(MrOli is ugly, but in the morning you will be sober, Tue 22 Jun 2010, 13:35, closed)

hahaha
it's funny because you're a prick
(likeajackhammer, Tue 22 Jun 2010, 12:23, closed)

Not saying I was in the right.
As I was 18 at the time, beer and the like tended to come before stuff like food and bills.

I just feel slightly smug that I was able to get one over on the debt collectors, who were utterly unreasonable.

Nowdays I have grown up a bit and tend to pay my bills on time...
(Flap Burger hasn't really got a burger made of flaps, Tue 22 Jun 2010, 12:39, closed)

No - you weren't in the right, and your smugness is unjustified.
You got yourself into a mess deliberately, and got annoyed when you were expected to pull yourself out of the mess, and then feel smug that you got away with paying a bit less. You should be grateful, not smug.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Tue 22 Jun 2010, 13:05, closed)

^this
so much this. it's douche bags like this that think they can just not pay for stuff and not have to worry about it that cause the councils to be overextended in the first place.
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Tue 22 Jun 2010, 13:10, closed)

I don't think I can "not pay for stuff".
I *offered* to pay them in full. They refused.

Also, the way it tends to work is this: the council sells the debt to another organisation who then relentlessly pursues the debtor. Therefore the council will have got their money.
(Flap Burger hasn't really got a burger made of flaps, Tue 22 Jun 2010, 13:13, closed)

No - you're still not getting it.
You got yourself into the position, deliberately, in the first place.

There is nothing for you to feel righteous or smug about.

You got yourself a debt, deliberately, and you paid it off, at slightly less than you should have done.

Getting into debt deliberately for vanity does not make you grown-up, clever or cool, and it's not "sticking it to the man". It's childish, idiotic, and you've cheated the taxpayer out of a few hundred quid.

Whoop-de-doo.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Tue 22 Jun 2010, 13:22, closed)

Makes
a change from them cheating us out of a few hundred quid.
(dchurch bah, Tue 22 Jun 2010, 13:39, closed)

Like when?

( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Tue 22 Jun 2010, 13:40, closed)

Like
taking 200 quid a month to NOT fix the f*&*ing roads for a start.

If the tax is paid in advance, why I am still driving through more crators than are on the moon, simply to get to work?

Trying to get me to pay for two properties at the same time, when I can clearly only live in one is another.

Charging me council tax for my house when it was empty for 7 months following a fire, etc....
(dchurch bah, Tue 22 Jun 2010, 13:53, closed)

I think you're crossing wires. Incompetence I have never defended.
But one's duty to pay council tax is a burden we all must bear.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Tue 22 Jun 2010, 13:58, closed)

True
...and probably right about the crossed-wires.

I just see 200 quid a month to have my bins emptied 25 times a year as a bit strong, nay, theft by menaces (as I'll be threatened soon enough if I refuse to pay).
(dchurch bah, Tue 22 Jun 2010, 14:07, closed)

Given that the council apparently offered to cut this bill - freely and without being prompted - I'm not certain that he 'cheated' the taxpayer at all. If they offered to cut my bill by 500 quid, I'd gladly accept.

Also - "I know not paying one's council tax is a bloody stupid thing to do, but I was young and dumb back then." Seems he's already pretty much accepted that which you're currently berating him for.
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Tue 22 Jun 2010, 13:46, closed)

I thought that was on the invite.

( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Tue 22 Jun 2010, 14:03, closed)

SOME money
Not all. Then there would be no profit margin for the debt collection agency.

For a £1500 debt the agency may pay the council a few hundred quid.
(Reverend Fister "a disciplined fuckwit", Tue 22 Jun 2010, 13:23, closed)

Overextended?
I've yet to see any evidence that any council is overextended.

I took a mate to the local council a couple of weeks back as he wanted to enquire about getting a pest control licence.

Five people sat about watching us at the desk, laughing and joking, one had his feet up on the desk. When I shouted across at them (after 15 minutes of watching them NOT coming to serve us), they just shouted, "use the phone or touchscreen" - neither of which had an option for asking about a pest control licence.

He gave up and now just does it for cash in hand jobs for farmers.

Of course, the whole office was closed at 3pm, and wasn't open until 10am.

If they were so overextended, you'd think that they'd soak up the extra 3 hours that most of us have to work every day.
(dchurch bah, Tue 22 Jun 2010, 13:39, closed)

Similar but different
Had a similar story when I lived on the Holloway Road. The Council Tax department suddenly went after our blood for little reason. Would they change their records? Would they bollocks.

Because the records showed we were in Flat 2. If I heard that once, I heard it a million times.

But we live in Flat 1.

No, our records say you're in Flat 2. You're now 28 months behind. We'll sue you.

Please do - it isn't legal if you're charging us for a flat we don't live in. And we moved in 6 months ago...

No, our records say you're in Flat 2. You now have to pay thousands of pounds, instantly. Today, please. Do you have a credit card number?

Sue me, that's not our bill. We live in Flat 1, and always have.

No, our records clearly show you're in the flat on the left as you walk in, Flat 2.

We ARE in the left hand flat, but that is Flat 1, and we've been there 6 months.

... Statements, red letters, bailiffs notices ... more phone calls (I once calculated I spent over 12 hours on hold to them during this time)

Eventually they conceded and allowed us to pay our £800 bill in 8 instalments (the problem we had was they were trying desperately to charge us for 2 years when WE HADNT LIVED THERE "because our records show you on the address". Yeah, but our tenancy agreement didn't mean shit to them). I don't know how their idea of the building was so different to how it was either. First flat on the left is Flat 2? That seems somewhat counter-intuitive anyway, not that I mentioned that.

Bastards. I moved out, still owing some of it eventually. Too much stress for a shitty flat.
(jajwhite, Tue 22 Jun 2010, 13:09, closed)

Yep
I know the story. When I moved, I phoned and told them of my new address and the date that I would be moving.

Made no difference.

I got a bill, nearly a year later, for the place I'd moved out of. I wrote to them and told them again when I had moved. They said that they sent a final bill (long after the date that I moved, and wrong - they were about 2 months out), and as I didn't pay it within 6 days they instigated a court hearing - which I didn't turn up at (because they sent it to my old address - trust me, I'd have gone to that hearing if I'd known about it).

I sent nine letters, and copied my MP in (fat lot of good that did) on each one. In the meantime, I was constantly on at them for not sending me a bill for my current place (phoning them about once a month).

In the end, they sent me a bill for £0.00 - which I paid, by ignoring it, and writing to them AGAIN to tell them the date that I moved, and asking when I would be getting a bill?

Bastards issued a court summons - which I was prepared to go to, but the misses was getting ill over it, so I phoned again to be told that the only way to stop it was to pay 2000 quid in one hit.

Luckily, I'd paid what I thought my monthly payments would be to myself, so I had the dosh to pay it (I was slightly out as it was much more expensive than where I lived before).

...but it shows you that even if you are willing to pay it, the cupid stunts simply cannot get it right.
(dchurch bah, Tue 22 Jun 2010, 13:45, closed)

Count yourself lucky...
... that it wasn't my other half you were being pursued by. She is a debt collector and tells me that in the month you didn't hear from anyone she would have got a CCJ from you in one easy step and then sent a couple of bailiff chappies around to your place to enforce it.

She repossess cars and has heard every excuse in the book. She scares me.
(Audax Victor, Tue 22 Jun 2010, 19:22, closed)

I'm with vagabond on this.
You state in the very first sentence of your post that you intentionaly did not pay your council tax. When you boil it down that means people like me were paying for you.

You, sir, are a free-loading, tax-dodging cunt.
( pixel_fucker is going to need a bigger brush, Wed 23 Jun 2010, 23:09, closed)