[lockstock]

:mad::mad::mad:We sold our UK house last October. I paid up all the bills etc including the Council Tax. Today we received a letter from the Council - or, more accurately, the Magistrate's Court, with a summons for non-payment of £99 council tax plus court costs to be paid at the court before 7 April. It was addressed to our old house (good detective work eh? sold house, new occupier duh!), redirected via Royal Mail, the NZ Post to our first NZ address which we left in February.


I thought I'd checked everything off. In fact I know I did. Now, back in the UK we have Court Orders and Summonses and costs to try and sort out. I am fuming because it is all so totally unnecessary.

Moral of the story, check, double check and then sent them all a picture to colour in. And get everything in writing.

[BaldyBeardyBloke]

We had similar issues with Paula's Vodafone bill.

Many phone calls later and numerous agreements and still we ended up having to just pay them (it wasn't a lot - principle etc.) to get them to STOP SENDING BILLS FOR MONEY WE DONT OWE THEM !!!!!!

Grrrrrr

[Sam B]

I had the same thing with child benefit. I cancelled it, but they just kept on paying and I didn't realise for a year. Then they wanted it back. GRRR.

[Familyofmonkeys]

I had the same thing with child benefit. I cancelled it, but they just kept on paying and I didn't realise for a year. Then they wanted it back. GRRR.

We had this with both child benefit and child tax credits...despite the fact that er had told them we were lieaving UK in plenty of time before we moved. In the end it took 5 months for them to sort out the tax credits :(

Incidentally we got a chased a debt collection agency a few years ago about some money (£14) we owed to a utility company, depsite the fact they had sent us (and we paid) a 'Final Bill' when we moved. It turns out that the final bill was an estimate rather than a meter reading (they ignored the reading we gave them on moving day) hence the money owed. The company claimed they had been unable to contact us, but when we pulled out the final bill to check it was addressed to our new house, so they did have our new contact details, but aparently they were on a different system....grrr. Needless to say, we didn't end up having to pay any costs in the end and I expect it cost them far more money to chase us than the money we owed them.

[Georgebulldog]

I had the same thing with child benefit. I cancelled it, but they just kept on paying and I didn't realise for a year. Then they wanted it back. GRRR.


Now this is worrying as I called & stopped my child benefit which did stop but I'm still getting child tax credit, someone did say you get it for about 6 months so I'm waiting until July to see what happens, anyone know if this is right or not?
Oooh I get so angry, if they mess up thats their fault & they should have to find the money :mad:

[Georgebulldog]

[QUOTE=Familyofmonkeys;209437]We had this with both child benefit and child tax credits...despite the fact that er had told them we were lieaving UK in plenty of time before we moved. In the end it took 5 months for them to sort out the tax credits :(

So did you end up calling them or could you stop it by e mail? I suppose I need to sort it out I just thought it will stop soon, but I will NOT :no call them at my expense for their mistake, I told them about one so they should have stopped the other surely?:confused:

[Sam B]

Ha! That would presume that there is some form of communication between 2 departments - which I'm pretty certain there is not.

[Moorf]

LOL was about to say the same Sam - very little "communication" between depts in my experience. Best to tackle each dept individually.

[lockstock]

Communication? I'll give them some bl**dy communication tonight when I phone with the follow up to my e-mail. Good old Skype. I'm raring to go.

[Georgebulldog]

So I'm now thinking I shouldn't be getting it then?
Well they don't know where I am so they may have to just sing for it, it's the only thing going into my UK account so I don't think they could trace me, or could they ;)

[Georgebulldog]

good luck Lockstock
Why do I get so mad over someone elsess problems :mad:

[Moorf]

Communication? I'll give them some bl**dy communication tonight when I phone with the follow up to my e-mail. Good old Skype. I'm raring to go.

Ohhhh, can you record Skype conversations? :D Good Luck - give 'em hell...

[pinkpiggy]

Good luck Gilly. It took us 4 months to cancel our Child Benefit which they say they've done and I haven't heard anything since so fingers crossed all is well. :uhoh

[lockstock]

Press 1 for this, press 2 for that, press 3 for the other - please hold your call is important to us...dee-dee dummdumm la la la

Why can't you speak to a human being??????

[nippa&pippa]

Now this is worrying as I called & stopped my child benefit which did stop but I'm still getting child tax credit, someone did say you get it for about 6 months so I'm waiting until July to see what happens, anyone know if this is right or not?
Oooh I get so angry, if they mess up thats their fault & they should have to find the money :mad:

me too, and 18months later, still got child tax credit coming into our UK account despite 2 phone call in UK, 2 email...
*sigh* oh I gave up till they realise that we have left country:exit.....

[Georgebulldog]

me too, and 18months later, still got child tax credit coming into our UK account despite 2 phone call in UK, 2 email...
*sigh* oh I gave up till they realise that we have left country:exit.....

Don't suppose you could send me the e mail address could you Sophia? That way I can at least say "I tried & it's not my fault so no your not getting your money back I've spent it" :D

Thanks Lindsey

[nippa&pippa]

Don't suppose you could send me the e mail address could you Sophia? That way I can at least say "I tried & it's not my fault so no your not getting your money back I've spent it" :D

Thanks Lindsey

can't remember what was the email address anymore as in my old email address book (BTinternet but stop use it 6months after arrived in NZ). You will find it under contact us in their website. If you manage to get through, tell them there is lots of us still received it!

[JandM]

Ohhhh, can you record Skype conversations? :D Good Luck - give 'em hell...


Hear, hear!

[Familyofmonkeys]

We rang up pretty much every month after yet more tax credits had gone into our UK bank account and every month they said their system could not cancel tax credits without a permanent overseas address, which we kept giving them every month...they just couldn't seem to get it right. It's like you are saying "I don't want your money anymore" but they keep giving it to you anyway. I did ask them what they would do if we had no fixed address and went off travelling for a year and the answer was that they would have to keep paying it unless we closed our bank account :mad:

[pinkpiggy]

can't remember what was the email address anymore as in my old email address book (BTinternet but stop use it 6months after arrived in NZ). You will find it under contact us in their website. If you manage to get through, tell them there is lots of us still received it!

We tried emailing and phone but in the end it was writing a letter that worked. Just remember to keep a copy. :uhoh

[jubjub]

Good luck, I think it took nearly 6 months for Scottish Gas to actually send us a final bill so we could pay it!

We had an issue years back too with a power company, they were not sending us bills, and then pursued us with a debt collector ??? Several snotty faxes and letters later, it was sorted, but not after my blood pressure took a beating!

[babscat]

Has anyone actually had any overpaid child benefit or tax credit written off?

My daughter is being threatened with court action to recover overpayments, and has appealed against this as she was unaware for a long time that they were still being paid.( A long involved saga!) She has authorised me to act on her behalf as I am currently in UK, but apart from a letter to say her appeal will be considered we have heard nothing for a couple of months or more - probably an insignificant amount of time considering the inefficient way in which these people work.

Would welcome any advice or information from anyone else in a similar situation!

Barbara

[nickydwuk]

I had some 'overpaid' tax credits refunded. I had provided all our figures as requested and estimated the following years. When the following years figures were due they were slightly different (not more than £2000). As they said they had overpaid us they began recovering the money. When Iread their small print it stated that if our income varied by less than xxxxx (can't remember how much but it was more than £2k) they would not recover it. I wrote to them and they agreed that they were at fault and paid back what they recovered. So it can be done - just don't give up. :)

[babscat]

Thanks Nickydwuk.

My daughter and family were already receiving a reduced sum because of overpayments in a previous year, when they emigrated, They were then told on the phone (wrongly, it transpired,) that the credits could continue to be paid for 8 weeks until the family decided whether or not to stay in NZ. In spite of my daughter writing to say they were not returning to UK, the credits continued to be payed to them for months more. Now they are in dispute over the repayment of about £3,000.

Needless to say there is no way they can find that sum after all the costs of emigration and resettlement - they have take a large cut in income to obtain PR!

If the worst comes to the worst they will have to pay off monthly until they retire - or beyond!!

Barbara

[Sam B]

Yup, they've just let me off a year of child benefit since we moved here, cos I pointed out I cancelled it and it was their mistake.

[Belmont Babes]

I have an Orange phone contract that will cost me £400 to get out of. The thing is that I signed for the first 12 month contract but theone for the 2nd year was just a verbal agreement over the phone to keep it going. Do you think I have a good case to tell them to get lost?

[Sam B]

That happened to me. I just cancelled the direct debit and I haven't heard from them yet .... That was after a lot of arguing

[lockstock]

I have an Orange phone contract that will cost me £400 to get out of. The thing is that I signed for the first 12 month contract but theone for the 2nd year was just a verbal agreement over the phone to keep it going. Do you think I have a good case to tell them to get lost?


Same here with BT Mobile only they didn't send any bills and I was the one pursuing them to do their job. The best bit was that I phoned them to pay last month's bill and asked to be put through to the final settlement people to pay off the £150 or so to get me out of the contract. I'd had several e-mails ignored and every time it was ignored I e-mailed them again to say they were ignoring my requests to pay. The final settlement people said I owed nothing even though I argued with them that I did.

Last week I got a final demand letter or legal action would be taken. The amount? £00.00.

They must think they're so clever!

[JandM]

Last week I got a final demand letter or legal action would be taken. The amount? £00.00.I had this happen years ago after I'd finished paying for something bought from Readers' Digest. The first letter I ignored because it seemed just silly, but then I began getting the follow-up ones that were increasingly nasty, so I phoned them. The man on the other end was very apologetic, and blamed it all on a programme that was in the computer, which nobody could, apparently, break into to alter - ??? - once launched. However, if I would kindly send them a cheque for £00.00 that they could record, that would satisfy it. So I did, as after all, I had nothing to lose! And it must've done the trick.:p