Dear Sir,

I have been following the letters concerning the above subject with interest as I am directly affected by Council Tax legislation that is not only ‘unfair’ but, as a 69 year old pensioner, is financially crippling!

As far as I can gather the term ‘Double Council Tax’ refers to the extra tax Aycliffe, and indeed all main towns, are being forced to pay for the deficit funding in adjacent smaller towns, villages and hamlets that border the main town.

I read that the extra charges could amount to between £200 to £250? – and that’s considered unfair – really?

Let me tell you what IS not only ‘unfair’ but blatantly extortionate! I bought a property in Aycliffe after a divorce in 2013 – I soon discovered that the area I was living in had a large number of houses owned by ‘buy to rent’ landlords who took little or no interest in the anti-social behaviour of their tenants. To cut a long story short this anti-social behaviour affected me so badly I decided that if I stood any chance of getting any peace at all I was going to have to move – I found a place in Wingate and spent most of the savings I had to secure it because I didn’t want to lose it to another buyer.

Before long the inevitable Council Tax arrived and charges demanded for this property which neither I, nor anyone else, was living in.

I called the Tax Dept. at DCC and explained the situation that the house needed electrical and water repairs as well as re-decorating throughout AND that it wasn’t occupied. I was then asked if it had any furniture in it, it did – a chair, a fold away bed and a kettle – I was then told that was enough for it to be considered as ‘occupied’.

I then argued that because of the electrical and water problems in the property, in my opinion it was ‘uninhabitable’ and therefore should be rightfully classified as ‘unoccupied’. I was then informed that the only situation that the Council would consider a property to be uninhabitable was if ‘there were’ no windows or roof on the building’ (as in being bombed by the Luftwaffe, I imagine!)

OK! . . . So I was forced to pay the unwarranted FULL amount of Council Tax on this unoccupied property with NO single persons discount (25%) as well as paying Tax on my house in Aycliffe.

Double Tax? – Unfair? Yes! Tell me about it!

But wait . . . it gets even more obscene!

My original intention was to sort the repairs out and move myself and belongings to Wingate, but because of being an insulin dependant diabetic and taking medication for anxiety and depression, my energy and motivation levels have been for some while, zero. I seem to be exhausted most of the time and I have no family or friends to help me.

Because of Corona I have not been able to put either house on the market to date. Now in the second year of ownership of the property in Wingate, I have been sent a Council Tax charge for TWICE the amount of the standard Council Tax on the UNOCCUPIED property – YES you have read correctly! That’s what your Councillors and MPs voted for back in 2012 their mentality being ‘If a person owns a property that is unoccupied for two years let’s charge them DOUBLE the amount of Tax as well as charge for the property they actually live in, they consider it completely ‘fair’ that a single pensioner should pay THREE times the amount of Council Tax that a family of two, three, four, five or more pay!

Readers, you should consider! THIS is the mentality of YOUR (as I was smugly informed by a member of DCC staff) elected Labour led Council. But WAIT . . . wasn’t I charged the first years FULL Council Tax on the empty property because it was considered OCCUPIED because it had a chair in it?

But now in order to extort double the amount of tax, DCC claim it’s been UN-occupied for two years! . . . I don’t understand the justification for this double amount of tax – in fact, there is no justification. What am I paying for exactly? – Perhaps it’s all the extra services I’m NOT getting?

NO! . . . This charge is purely and simply a financial ‘punishment’ for daring to own an unoccupied house even though a directive from the Governments own Housing Ministry states that: ‘Council Tax is NOT meant to be used as a ‘punitive’ Tax’. I’d be interested to know from the leader of the Council (Bob Fleming) what part of that directive doesn’t he or any Councillor or MP within DCC administration understand? It is within the ‘job description’ of EVERY Councillor, MP or Minister, to serve the community they are elected to serve to do their best to benefit that community.

Again, I’d like to ask Mr Fleming, ‘how does it benefit me when your Council financially cripples me by charging me three times the ordinary amount of Council Tax?’?

I’m just amazed at the depths DCC are willing to sink in order to extort money from property\home owners! The irony is that when this particular nasty piece of legislation was approved by Central Government (a Coalition Gov. led by David Cameron), the decision to make this charge was left up to individual County Councils – it WASN’T obligatory – it was discretionary.

Very soon, I will be forced to consider selling to a ‘We Buy Any Property’ company, one in which I’ll be offered about two thirds of the actual market value and all because I wanted some peace and quiet . . . all because DCC did nothing to deal with the anti-social behaviour that I was subjected to.

So . . . forgive me if I don’t get too annoyed about ‘so-called’ Double Council Tax charges, previous letters have been alluding to and calling ‘unfair’ – put yourselves in my place – I am now forced to pay over two thirds of my pension over £400 per month on Council Tax ALONE!! And THAT dear readers, is the truth.

Name & address supplied