How often do you check your utility bills?

When Ovo replaced the smart meters installed by e.on the job was done by another company and I expect that this is normal practice. Ovo is still responsible even if they have never seen the meter. I took photos of the meter readings before they were replaced.

The record of past consumption, which should be available from present and past suppliers, could be helpful in establishing if there is a problem with a meter. I expect that consumers have protection against unexpected energy bills if the company has neither been taking meter readings nor notified the customer that they are underpaying for a significant period. I’m glad you received a refund.

The answer to that is fairly obvious: councils don’t trust the electorate. If they did, they’d implement a system whereby a sufficiently high number of council-tax payers could call a referendum on certain issues.

You might well increase your tax band, and that of your neighbours. A national revaluation is the right way, in my view, to do this but hopefully is not something we will spend much-needed money on at the present time. The house we live in may well have increased in relative value, and thus could attract a higher tax, but many in such situations will not have income to pay the tax and the family home is not something they would want to move out of. It is perhaps not a fair taxation method, but if we want councils more freedom to raise tax we could use a local income tax to spread the burden onto those with higher incomes

I’m not sure we should put this off. Those homes that have been extended should certainly be looked at to make sure that owners are paying their fair share.

I agree malcolm it could increase the tax band as it has happened to others in my area who thought they were paying too much but ended up paying more and as the surveyor/evaluator was there he had a duty to check out the surrounding houses to judge the standard of the homes . Let sleeping dogs lie. Just noticed your post Wavechange your braver than me .

What is a “fair share”? I don’t really see whether extending your 2 bed bungalow with an extra room necessarily means you will have more wealth to dispense, or make more use of council services. Perhaps the tax should be based on the number of occupants, or the amount of use you make of “variable” council services such as schools. The size of your house seems to bear little relation to this, no more than it is used nationally to decide on your tax contribution.

But I do not see a perfect system and we will all have differing views no doubt.

The best system is to scrub council tax entirely and put in all on the central taxation system. There are serious arguments that can be made for why, for instance, childless couples should pay vast sums for schools, or why libraries are important or not. Local taxation has always ended in tears; it’s supposed to ensure greater accountability, but all too often it simply ends up funding the already highly paid council administration staff.