An Edinburgh resident was left thinking enforcement officers were going to be knocking at his door after a mystery text from the council saying his tax bill was overdue.
Bob Bell, 73, got into a panic when he received the 'phantom bill' from the council on April 14 for his quarterly council tax bill which he paid over two weeks ago at the end of March.
With the text telling Bob he was due £78, he tried to call the council to rectify the issue but could not get through. Bob claims he then sent an email to inform them of the issue and was told a response could take up to 30 days, by which point the threat of sheriff officers visiting the property was more than likely.
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After Edinburgh Live contacted Edinburgh council on behalf of Mr Bell, it was discovered that as Bob was paying using their freephone service, an 11-digit account number was required to make the payment - but Bob's letter from the council only had an eight-digit number printed on it.
As per the council's instructions on how to pay your council tax via their phone service, the number nine must be dialled before the eight-digit account number displayed on your paper bill, followed by the last two numbers of the year - in Bob's case it was 23 as the year is 2023.
As the details of how to do this are available online and not on the bill itself, Bob only realised the error when it was too late.
A spokesperson for the council has since confirmed they cannot change the way the account number is displayed on the tax bill letters but have addressed this on their website.
They also confirmed the fee of £78.93 which was accidentally paid towards the financial year of 2020/21 will be transferred to the current financial year.
Speaking about the mix-up, a confused Bob said: "I just phone up and pay my bill every couple of months or so. I paid £78 on March 30 as it's easier for me. I had a problem with the same thing around two years ago.
"This time, though, I got a random text in the afternoon saying my bill has not been paid and if I did not pay, they would take necessary steps to retrieve the money.
"I went back in and looked at my bank statement which proved that I paid it last month. I filled in a complaint form after the council said they had sent my enquiry off to the relevant department."
While phoning up, Bob noticed he was asked for an 11-digit number, but the letter he received from the council only had an eight-digit number printed on it. During a mix-up, Bob ended up paying the £78 towards the financial year of 2020/21.
When the phone would not accept his number on the letter, he entered one from a previous letter, leading to the money going into the wrong financial year's account.
Bob continued: "I got last year's number which I put in and it accepted it. It gave me the reference number and confirmed I had paid it at the end of the month. Now, they're saying it'll take three weeks by which point the sheriff officers will be down here.
"I don't know how many people are involved in this and struggling to understand it but it's frustrating not being able to get through on the phone. I thought it would be useful knowing how many other people are involved in this as I doubt I'm the only one.
"Being a resident who has always paid the council tax up front and on time, that's what annoyed me the most. They've had ages to decide what the tax rates were going to be and they have sent out letters which don't contain the right account number with not enough digits."
Bob's quarterly bill has now been transferred to the current financial year and a member of staff from the relevant department has been in touch with him to explain what went wrong.
A Council spokesperson said: “We’re pleased officers were able to help Mr Bell quickly resolve this. We’re exploring options with our council tax payment suppliers to make the process easier for our customers.”
For anyone else struggling with a similar issue, advice on how to pay your council tax via the freephone service is available here.
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