The Isle of Wight Council has apologised to a couple who had more than £1,000 taken out of their bank account by accident.
Richard and Mary Young used to live in Ryde but sold their property and moved off the Island 6 months ago.
Last month, the couple were looking through their bank statements when they noticed the Isle of Wight Council had wrongly charged them £1,024 in council tax for the property they no longer owned nor lived in.
It has taken them more than 2 weeks to get the money back after delays in being refunded. They said it amounted to stealing.
Mr and Mrs Young said they are both in their 70s and didn’t want the hassle, but were thankful they were in a stable financial position that this could happen to them and not others who might feel the pinch more.
An Isle of Wight Council spokesperson has apologised to Mr and Mrs Young and said ‘learning outcomes’ have been identified to prevent a similar situation from happening in the future.
The spokesperson said when the couple told the authority they were moving, it was not clear whether they still owned the property or had sold it.
The council tax team worked on the basis the house had been sold and started to investigate who the new owner was but the Land Registry still showed Mr and Mrs Young — which was not the case. Due to that, the council tax account was reopened, the couple billed and payment was taken, the spokesperson said.
When Mr and Mrs Young contacted the council to query the payment and the account was closed on the same day, it was not noticed a ‘due payment’ had not been stopped, they said.
The council said there was also a week’s delay in authorising the refund but it has now been processed.
News?? Come on…. This is ridiculous
local news.. refund approved
Why didn’t they stop the direct debit??
Stop victim blaming. Because they are over 70 and it’s easily forgotten. Does not excuse the council stealing. Whilst the mainstream media and the sheep laugh at crypto bro’s the crypto bro’s are enjoying being their own bank and having full control over their own money. And don’t believe the FUD, the US dollar is using in over 90% of crime in the world. If you wish to bad crypto because of crime then you need to first ban the US dollar.
Time to Abolish council tax
You’ll be the first moaning when the bins are not emptied, the streets are over ran by fly tipping.
No I won’t.
When the morons who collect the waste arrive, they leave behind more mess than before they arrived to collect the waste.
Let’s face it, they are not the brightest bunch of lads.
They leave the bins all of the show too!
Abolish council tax and I am happy to take my own waste to the tip once a week
much cheaper.
They are not the only people over charged and I didn’t move house. Took 6 weeks to get my money back. £460 taken 2 weeks before Christmas. I refuse to use direct debit now.
I never have. I pay monthly in a Post office.
Never trust any organisation run by the Government, all are Useless.
Ever tried to find the CT office handling our money? It’s a PO Box number. Learnt a long time ago not to trust any organisation with hidden accounts departments. No face to face with the faceless. IWC all the way.
Watch out burley driver.
I despise paying Council Tax, Council Tax should be based on
an Households total income.
It would be a much fairer system.
Why should a small family living in an identical property with only 1 child
pay the same Council Tax as a family with 4 children or more.
The household with more children generate more waste etc
I bet MP’s are pleased they don’t have to pay Council tax, another perk of the
Job.
We are all in it together
Lol
This is the exact reason why I will NEVER pay by direct debit. And never repaid as fast as it gets taken