Luton landlord's despair over council tax chaos which left him chased by debt collectors

A Luton landlord has slammed the council after being chased by debt collectors for money he says the council admits he does not owe.

Eric Camp is being chased for £900 in council tax for a property he rented out in 2018 in Chiltern Rise.

One of the tenants, who did pay council tax, left the property and the two students remaining were exempt from the charge.

But Mr Camp says Luton Council's computer systems have been unable to process the change and he is facing a demand for payment despite assurances during phone conversations that the council accepts he does not owe the money.

"For many years I have had a rental property in LU1 5HF and have gone through cycles of tenants, some of which have been updated correctly and others not. Over the years I have had no end of threatening letters, all of which have come to nothing as it ends up being the council tax admin that has failed. This time I am in despair!!

"They started chasing me in November last year." said Mr Camp. "I call them, they admit they are wrong but don't put it in writing and put a two week stop on the debt collectors, but then it starts all over again. The whole problem is because the system can't cope. I can spend up to 45 minutes on the phone trying to sort this. I can't be the only one who is receiving terrible service."

Mr Camp said the situation was made worse because the first correspondence he had with the council had been sent to a property he had sold more than five years ago.

"I are now just about a month further forward and have been told that this has passed to the bailiff for collection. This person will of course turn up at the door for collection, waste his time and energy to collect nothing as nothing is due! However I’m sure that the council tax both you and I pay for will ultimately be paying for this inefficiency.

"I don’t understand why this department can be run so inefficiently over so many years and why that seems to be acceptable. Their response times on the phone, to emails etc are beyond poor.

"I just want someone to shake them up a bit. It's just a shame Luton people are paying for all this."

A spokesman for Luton Council said: "The council is not able to share information concerning individual cases, however our Revenues Manager is seeking urgent clarification on this issue and will contact the resident directly in order to resolve the matter."