Local Councils grrrrr.

this makes me angry. I get a letter from my local authority saying I owe them £936 in unpaid council tax. I know I have paid up for this year, so phone them up. Turns out this relates to 1998 !!!! Allegedly I lived in a house in this area for a few months. Conversation goes like this

"I didnt live there, I was living at xxx"

"well sir you will need to prove that you didnt live there"

"eh ? Perhaps you can explain how I go about proving a negative, that would be clever"

"pardon ? (really confused at this point)".

"never mind, I will wait until it goes to court, and have a good laugh at you trying to prove something that didnt happen from 10 years ago"

"oh no sir, if it goes to court then it will be up to you to prove that you didnt live there and that you dont owe us the money"

"here we go again, oh sorry, I must have missed the bit that they rewrote the whole legal system that makes us guilty and in need to prove our innocence."

(decided that life was too short to waste on this phonecall at this point)

actually I probably wouldnt be surprised if we do need to prove that we dont owe the council. They are a law unto themselves anyway...

anybody know if council tax debts are barred under the statute of limitations ? 6 years I think it is.