household charge

dacoll1

A parent just received a letter from Donegal Council telling here that she owes 127 Euro. The brainless civil servants expect her to ring and tell them that she has already paid! Did these morons ever hear of a database? Perhaps they could employ yet another consultant to design a proper one.
I already paid the charge to avoid her getting these type of demand letters.
She lives opposite a fly tipping site that the council won't chase a developer over but yet she pays property tax which is then wasted sending out stupid letters.
Perhaps we should keep town councils and scrap the county council instead as they're incompetent.

danniemcq

Personally if that happened me where I had paid and got letter I’d say nothing.

Let them keep sending letters as long as you have the receipt.

the more confusion and incompetence that the council have the better in the long run for those who can't afford this, plus you are covered if (and that’s a big if) it went further you could show them receipt.

ednwireland

i got a nppr charge that had been paid on the property (bill for 2.5k) wrote to all my councillors and td's asking why we seem to be setting up multiple databses that cant store all the information (pearse didnt reply) instead of one database with everything on it.
I had quite a long converstion with pringle and he made a good point that as its self-declaration its down to the council to prove that you owe money not just send out bills.

got a letter form the dept saying they would look into it (yeah right - i told them what they need to do, we actually develop housing databases !)

not heard anything since

sent in all receipts to council and told them it was paid

does beg the question of how much of the "unpaid" charge is double billing

NIMAN

It appears that many folk who have paid the HC have received letters telling them they owe it. Got one myself for €127.

Now why should I go to the hassle of visiting my local CoCo to tell them they have already taken the money off me. By my logic they should know! It was only a few months back. It shows how inefficient their systemsor data collection must be.

I think there is probably an element of sending these letters out to everyone to scare them into paying, and we all got them, whether you have paid or not.

Cat82

We got a letter the other day telling us we hadn't paid it. I was ripping as we have paid it. I know lots of people who haven't paid it and none of them have got a letter. My husband was twice as cross and wrote a very strongly worded letter to the county council telling them they would need to sort out a better database or at least do some cross references between data bases they have. The way they are managing this whole charge is pathetic and its only going to get worse next year!

danniemcq

heh i guess they only have the addresses of those that have paid it

echo beach

danniemcq wrote: »

heh i guess they only have the addresses of those that have paid it

Looks like it. Everybody I know that has got a letter has already paid and all are ripping about it. It must be the most counterproductive mail shot ever. The council staff have to deal will irate callers saying they have paid. They have manged to annoy those who did pay and don't seem to have reached many, if any, who haven't paid.

Penfailed

danniemcq wrote: »

heh i guess they only have the addresses of those that have paid it

Nah...I got a letter and I haven't paid

2moreMinutes

I've been talking to a lot of people over the last few days who have received letters and who were going mad as they claimed that they had already paid. After talking to them for a few moments, it transpired that it was the NPPR that they had paid and not the Household Charge at all.:rolleyes:

SMcDDB

To the people who did get the letter saying you owe €127, did you by any chance register with mybills.ie within the past month or so? I have a suspicion this is being used to get names and addresses. Wish i never registered with mybills now! Got stung having not paid Useless service anyway!

NIMAN

SMcDDB wrote: »

To the people who did get the letter saying you owe €127, did you by any chance register with mybills.ie within the past month or so? I have a suspicion this is being used to get names and addresses. Wish i never registered with mybills now! Got stung having not paid Useless service anyway!

I got letter, never been near MyBills.ie

The Assistinator

SMcDDB wrote: »

To the people who did get the letter saying you owe €127, did you by any chance register with mybills.ie within the past month or so? I have a suspicion this is being used to get names and addresses. Wish i never registered with mybills now! Got stung having not paid Useless service anyway!

i got a letter a few weeks ago it was made out to my wifes maiden name (which she gave up when we married 5 years ago) the only thing thats in that name is our sky bill everything else is in my name :eek:

Firblog

Ya should ask them for the craic where they got the name and address from.. they don't have any right to get info from sky; don't let them fob ya off, you have every right to know what they have on their systems about you and where they got that information from...

ednwireland

Firblog wrote: »

Ya should ask them for the craic where they got the name and address from.. they don't have any right to get info from sky; don't let them fob ya off, you have every right to know what they have on their systems about you and where they got that information from...

thomas pringle asked the council for me apparently they couldnt tell him they were just given a list from an undisclosed source(which he found interesting ) so they are either breaking data protection laws to get this info or

well actuallly thats the only reason i can think of for not disclosing the source

Firblog

Personally I'd ask to view all information that they had recorded on me - letters/emails etc, then ask them where they got that info, no reply forth coming then it's data protection issue.. there are some rules limiting Big Brother

The Assistinator

Firblog wrote: »

Ya should ask them for the craic where they got the name and address from.. they don't have any right to get info from sky; don't let them fob ya off, you have every right to know what they have on their systems about you and where they got that information from...

I must ring sky when time permits it really this could a bigger picture to this than i thought another person i know told me they cancilled there sky and put it in there 15 year old daughters name and lo and behold the 15 yo daughter got the same letter regarding household charge:eek:

Just as an aside what can be done about passing on this information from one source to another?

muffler

martyo wrote: »

Just as an aside what can be done about passing on this information from one source to another?

The data Protection Act covers this and the good people who enforce it are here

ednwireland

do we actually excpect a government agency to act in any other way, there doesnt seem an ounce of decency left anywhere

gimli2112

Apparently anyone who gets a letter (even if you've paid) and doesn't tell the CoCo will get another and "technically" incur a fine.

Our tax dollars hard at work

Ayla

Just heard they're going to be talking about this very matter on The Last Word today (Matt Cooper on Today FM: 98-100FM, from 4:30-7)

DrPhilG

I got a letter a few weeks ago too. I already paid the charge, in my name.

Guess who's name the letter was in? The wife.

Guess the only utility bill we have in her name?

Sky TV...

muffler

DrPhilG wrote: »

I got a letter a few weeks ago too. I already paid the charge, in my name.

Guess who's name the letter was in? The wife.

Guess the only utility bill we have in her name?

Sky TV...

This is weird indeed and if it were me I would certainly be taking this matter a little further. But thats just me though.

Pique

DrPhilG wrote: »

I got a letter a few weeks ago too. I already paid the charge, in my name.

Guess who's name the letter was in? The wife.

Guess the only utility bill we have in her name?

Sky TV...

The same situation has been happening since (at least) 1998 wrt the TV License.
Installed Sky in a rented house under a pseudonym, 2 weeks later, the TV License inspector arrives looking for the same person.

Nothing new.

Besides, if you owe the HC, just pay it.

Firblog

muffler wrote: »

This is weird indeed and if it were me I would certainly be taking this matter a little further. But thats just me though.

Aye, not the only one...

why should we 'respect the law and follow the rules' when the bloody authorities don't

Cee-Jay-Cee

I paid but still got a letter. I wrote to them telling them to update their systems and that I would not be ringing anyone to tell them I paid. I didn't put the reference number on it but did give my name and address so they can look it up themselves. I also put in big block capitals not to contact me again.

Our letter had my wife's name first and mine second and the only place that it is written like that was on a CSO survey my wife done about a month ago. Every other bill is either in my sole name, her sole name or mine first then hers.

Penfailed

I don't have Sky...but I got a letter.