So basically all my housemates are students. We are exempt from council tax normally. We recevied letters at the normal times last year requesting that we pay our council tax, so we told them we were students, no reply (phonecalls, emails etc).
We finally receive a court summons two months ago, so we're like "hey, what?" so we give them our university forms that prove our student status. In our defense, on the rare occasion that we did get through, the woman on the phone said that she'd registered our household as student status and it was all ok.
The woman at the tax office says that normally all the outstanding charges would be dropped and it would all go through as normal. Good. She said we would be contacted about the proceedings.
Today, we receive a liability order stating that we have seven days to pay a ridiculous amount of money, or else baliffs will be called out. We were not contacted prior to this, and all quite frankly a little surprised. It's our first time renting a house and we didn't expect the council to be such jerks.
Good Defense Points:
We're first time renters and were not aware of the implications of council tax. Our landlord had contacted the council when we moved in to state that we were students. We contacted the council after their letter to confirm that we were indeed students. We later provided proof from the university that we were students. We were students before, and during the entire ordeal. I have proof of e-mails sent to the council without any reply.
If we're not students, what exactly are we? Unemployed people, who aren't on benefits, who have no real income?
Bad Defense Points:
We handed in our student forms late, however did so promptly after warning. The council failed to reply to our inquiries. We didn't show up to our court summons, assuming it was cancelled.
Bottom line,
If it comes down to it, Are we screwed? Advice much appreciated. We intend to go tomorrow morning to try and sort this out but does anyone have any experience with evil councils?
We finally receive a court summons two months ago, so we're like "hey, what?" so we give them our university forms that prove our student status. In our defense, on the rare occasion that we did get through, the woman on the phone said that she'd registered our household as student status and it was all ok.
The woman at the tax office says that normally all the outstanding charges would be dropped and it would all go through as normal. Good. She said we would be contacted about the proceedings.
Today, we receive a liability order stating that we have seven days to pay a ridiculous amount of money, or else baliffs will be called out. We were not contacted prior to this, and all quite frankly a little surprised. It's our first time renting a house and we didn't expect the council to be such jerks.
Good Defense Points:
We're first time renters and were not aware of the implications of council tax. Our landlord had contacted the council when we moved in to state that we were students. We contacted the council after their letter to confirm that we were indeed students. We later provided proof from the university that we were students. We were students before, and during the entire ordeal. I have proof of e-mails sent to the council without any reply.
If we're not students, what exactly are we? Unemployed people, who aren't on benefits, who have no real income?
Bad Defense Points:
We handed in our student forms late, however did so promptly after warning. The council failed to reply to our inquiries. We didn't show up to our court summons, assuming it was cancelled.
Bottom line,
If it comes down to it, Are we screwed? Advice much appreciated. We intend to go tomorrow morning to try and sort this out but does anyone have any experience with evil councils?
Sneaky sneaks. I'm actually a werewolf. Woof.
