Council tax reclaim

A question about : Council tax reclaim

In February I was approached, at home, by a man saying was I interested in lowering my CT band and reclaiming overpayments.
How does it go I asked.
To cut the story short he said.

It's a 50/50 split of any monies reclaimed but.
1) We pay all the upfront fees.
2) Only 37% of appeals are successful and if your appeal fails you would face considerable legal and other fees but if you go through us we pay them. So a win/win situation for you sir, appeal passes you get a lump sum less our fees, appeal fails it costs you nothing we pay out.
This seemed like a sensible approach, limiting financial damage to nil and with a chance of a reclaim.
I signed thinking they were going to put me into their extensive database and figure if it was worth appealing on behalf of me and then getting back to me. Then I forgot all about it.
In June time I got the letter from VOA saying my appeal was successful and refund was on it's way. Oh well, they didn't get back to me but won it any way.
Thought I'd look into the process online just out of interest.
I now find:
1) There are no upfront fees it's free.
2) There is no fees payable on appeal failure, again it's free.
3) It's not a 50/50 split it's 50/40

I've wrote to North Yorks Trading Standards and they wrote back saying their Fraud and Financial Investigation Team was currently investigating said firm. I filled the form they sent and sent it back and am awaiting their advice.

I've got the money but I've also got the final final invoice from them which ran out yesterday so legal action could be on the way.
They have never rang me to acknowledge receipt of invoice or anything.
I've e mailed them the situation several times and no reply.
I wrote them a letter last week saying I was deferring payment until NYTS got back to me with advice as I saw it as a serious misrepresentation of the true facts.

Long winded but the question is what's my position.
The person at NYTS is not back at work till Tuesday.

Regards

Best answers:

• It seems they fulfilled the terms of the contract and did everything they promised, why are you not paying them?
• They basically lied to me about it.
  They told of upfront fees and penalty fees on failure.
  They used misrepresentation as a means of gaining my trust when the process is free.
  The fact that Trading Standards are investigating them tells me I'm not the only one they've basically scammed.
  If they had told me the truth I probably would have negotiated a price with them.
  "Anyone who is induced into a contract by a false statement can rescind the contract"
• When a company has lied about things to such an extent I can't blame a person for withholding monies.
  I deal with these sort of companies and on Monday I'll be seriously upsetting one but that's because they've done things wrong and brought certain information to my attention.
• Ok cheers for that.
  Was just worried about the costs involved in taking them on if I lose.
  Suppose that's what they bank on though.
• Just got the court papers to fill in about whether I want
  to dispute all the fee, some of the fee or want more time
  to pay it.
  Why would a N Yorkshire firm go through Northampton County
  Court and not their local one, it's miles from them.
• So I have now got 12 days left to decide what to do and I'm stuck.
  If I let it run it's course what happens next?
  The 2 biggest worries are:
  What's the eventual cost going to be if I fight this and lose, already got Ј70 tagged on for court costs?
  If I lose why do I get CCJ against my name just for disputing something, if I win do they get one?
  I've already sent a letter to them saying I wish to rescind the contract due to the misrepresentations (lying) of their agent.
• If you go to court can you prove the misrepresentation?
  eg company literature, brochures etc?
• The literature in itself sort of distorts the truth without actually lying.
  It's what the agent told me that was the misrepresentation.
  This company have been under investigation for some time now and Trading Standards are considering court action which tells me I'm one of many.
  They're, I think, using the court action against me as a frightener, which is working!!
• Point 1. Yes
  Point 2. It has delivered...my problem with this is they want half my rebate for sending an e mail. If they had told me the truth about costings, i.e. nothing, I would still probably have agreed to pay them something for doing it and for alerting me to it.
  Point 3. True.
  Point 4. I can't afford to fight a court case when I don't know what the final costs could be, not many people can...it could go to thousands for all I know if I lose which would make it pointless Surely everybody is concerned about it. Can't quite see your point here, surely I should be concerned? And yes it makes sense to fight where I will get to keep what is mine.
  Why is it greed. They lied to get my signature on the document so why shouldn't I be aggrieved, like I said I would have been willing to pay them something for alerting me and doing it for me if they had been up front about it.
• Is it greedy to want what's rightfully yours.
• If is just down to a case of your word against a signed contract, you will probably lose. They will most likely then go for any costs against you. How much do you stand to gain by fighting this?
• They want Ј1400....that includes VAT.
  Which is even worse having to pay tax on a tax rebate.
• If they had told me the truth but still wanted 50/50 no I wouldn't have used them.
  Seems like it's alright to lie about things to gain financial advantages judging by the comments on here.
• ILW
  Your right of course.
  Right or wrong should be the issue.
  I'm of the same opinion as you as to the court case.
  They replied to my letter of complaint today.
  They'll look into it and reply within 21 days.
  Bit late for me then though.
  If I pay them, to keep out of court rather than 'cos I'm happy with them, is
  that in itself an admission that I must be happy with them.
  Otherwise why would I pay them.