In these difficult times, everyone likes the sound of a saving, and CT Recovery Limited offered just that, saying it could check whether your house was in the correct council tax band.
“If we find that your banding is incorrect and should be lower, your council tax would be reduced on an ongoing basis and you would also be entitled to a rebate for any over-payments you have made in the past – this may be backdated as far back as 1993,” it gushed.
Pamela Cordon from Sheffield paid CT Recovery £195, and was told that its service could take as little as eight weeks.
That was in October last year, her tax band remains unchanged, and now she can’t get hold of the company, run by sole director Albert Brazil, 24.
Nor can I. Website counciltaxrecovery.com is down and when you call you get a message saying they cannot answer due to high call volumes.
Which is remarkable because CT Recovery Limited has been put into compulsory liquidation. In fact, it was in liquidation before it even took Pamela's money.
Its phone number and an identical logo were used by a second company, CT Resolution Limited, whose website gave a postal address in Birmingham while also claiming to be based “in the heart of Sussex”.
The director is listed at Companies House as Mark Rendell, 48. It was put into compulsory liquidation in August.
The number and logo are now being used by a third lot, CTR Consultants Limited – “one of the UK’s leading council tax consultancies”.
It too claims to be based in the heart of Sussex while confusingly giving the address of a virtual office provider called Ghost Mail in Kington, Herefordshire. This time the director is Jennifer Rogers, 59.
I called Ghost Mail and was told: “We cannot tell you if they are a client of ours due to data protection. If they owe you money, you should contact Trading Standards, we will deal with them. No one hides behind our address.”
The registered office address given by CTR Consultants has reverted to the default Companies House address in Cardiff, which usually happens when a company files a false address.
CTR Consultants has not replied to my questions.
You can check what council tax band you and your neighbour’s houses are in for free at gov.uk/council-tax-bands.
This will also tell you how to challenge your band if you think it's wrong.
investigate@mirror.co.uk
