This is a proper moan, sorry in advance.
My partner and I have lived here June last year. I was born and raised in Brighton, but this is my first time renting here after leaving uni.
It took us nearly 4 months to get our first council tax bill, despite contacting them on day 1 of our tenancy. I called them 3 times, to no avail as each time, the wait was so long the phone line closed whilst I was on hold.
I submitted 4 individual forms providing our tenancy agreement, information, everything. I specifically outlined that we NEEDED a bill urgently because I didn’t want to have to pay months worth of backdated bills at once.
We got our first bill in September. Despite this, we still received emails and text messages over this period about “missed payments”, all while not being able to access our account (no council tax number at this point).
We are still catching up on these payments.
Further, I work in property. I have to contact the council a lot for this, for example in respect to planning permission, council tax for properties and other issues.
I try to submit a form (usually can’t call as lines close at 1.30). They’ll always immediately redirect you to a page on their website with vague or outdated information, they’ll do absolutely anything to avoid talking to you. So you have to select a specific option in order to submit a form and lay out your situation clearly.
I have submitted around 7 forms, regarding work-only issues, since June. Guess how many times I have recieved a response?
You’d be right if you guessed absolutely fucking none.
I know it’s not as bad as other places, I know I’m being grumpy when the weather is fantastic today, but I need to know I’m not going crazy!!! Am I being unrealistic? Am I doing something wrong??