Harringay online

Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Is it normal to have 2 men from the council come banging on my door at 7am then 8am and again at noon just to check the names of people living at this address? I don't think so.

Not the best way to be abruptly woken up on a Saturday morning especially after having watched episodes of Luther all night!

 

Needless to say the council will be getting a call first thing tomorrow morning just to make sure they were who they said they were.

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In short: No! Unacceptable. What did the Council say when you called? Is it a scam? I would have given them a piece of my mind Luther stylee if it was me..
Was it the council? We had two guys in suits about 8am from a god squad a couple of Saturday's ago. Giving us bible stuff.
Osbawn, just tell them you worship satan. That should do it.
I had two gents turn up on my doorstep about a week ago first thing in the morning, bang loudly, demand to know who lived in my property. Further enquiries revealed they were from Islington council investigating a suspected fraud by someone who was claiming to live at my address. Catch was, they were in the wrong place. When they showed me the address on their handhold computer (similar to the ones that parking wardens use), they were looking for the person at my number on Wightman (I live on Cavendish).  It's probably in your interests to sort it out if you're in the same predicament as having fraudsters' names connected with your address can affect your credit rating quite badly.

It sounds like it is allegedly Islington Council

see here http://www.stroudgreen.org/discussion/2960/men-in-suits-banging-at-...

 

same discussion but no comment - so we may never know....

 

There was a man in a suit banging on the door opposite me only 20 minutes ago! I was having fun guessing where he might have been from. I had guessed it may be council related. The weird thing was he stood and waited there for absolutely AGES before going - they're being persistent, whatever it is

 

*hums men in black themetune*

It might be the follow up visits to the census for those homes that didn't respond although you would know if you filled the form in.

If you feel it is suspicious and happening there and then call 999

Thanks

I've no idea why Cris had Council staff knocking at his door. But since he posted the same information on Stroud Green website, saying they were from Islington Council, maybe Cris you live in Islington?

But as a Haringey councillor I find it dismaying that everyone seems to disapprove of council staff  door-knocking. At the extreme, seeing it as "the old Soviet style snooping conducted by the KGB.".

Can I suggest some reasons why this may not be secret police knock-on-the-door-in-the night-squad. But something more positive.

One reason is straightforward. Unless Councils know about a household they won't pay Council tax. And everyone who does pay Council tax subsidises people who avoid paying but still get services for free.

A linked reason is the fact that if a council's population is undercounted its government grant falls. Does Haringey Council trust the census? Since statisticians don't, the Health Trusts don't, and even the Waste contractors don't, why should Councils? And even if a snapshot on a single day was accurate, population mobility in boroughs like Haringey is very high.

A different group of reasons touch on issues raised on this website. For example, some landlords deliberately flout the planning laws and illegally convert homes into hutches. Did anyone see Despatches on More 4 yesterday? (4 July) with John Snow reporting on the increase in rogue landlords - including some who pack tenants into garden sheds which were fire and health hazards? Should we condemn Council staff as "KGB" when they ask questions about these?
There are many other situations where failure to knock at a door and ask questions will be condemned in the strongest terms. For example, not seeing children who are at risk.

(Tottenham Hale ward councillor)

So I called the council and they have no record of anyone coming to our property on Saturday and certainly not at that time of the morning. Another bizarre thing happened and I'm wondering if it's related...I went to pay my council tax yesterday and was told my account had been closed as of the 4th July and someone else's name had been listed as living here! I've reported the men in suits to the police.

 

 

 

Re your council tax being cancelled - are you renting? Mix-ups happen with rentals sometimes. Otherwise, maybe you're identity has been stolen. Lost a wallet/been burgled/computer security compromised? However the 'men in suits' situation surely wouldn't fit into that scenario would it? Unless someone at your address or that used to live at that address owes money to several agencies ... 

So it starts to look like some sort of scam or even a fraud?

Which borough are you in, Cris, Islington or Haringey? As well as telling the Police, can I suggest that - if you haven't already done so - you email the relevant Borough's Council Tax department confirming your call, setting out what's happened and confirming who is living at your address for Council Tax purposes.

Right now, this may seem an unnecessary chore. But it may help to head-off letters and bills for people you've never heard of who claim to live at your address.

This sounds like a scam to me.


We had our utilities switched to another provider without our knowledge because we had someone trying to open a bank account from our address, who needed proof of address. A council tax bill is similarly crucial for such things and is extremely easy to 'nobble'.


Unfortunately, without knowledge of WHO they're trying to defraud, it's actually quite difficult to make contact with a system that will flag up this problem (we've had other issues since which revealed this to me). If you have any 'new account' like packets arriving lately (usually in multiple envelopes) it's actually within your rights (I believe) and interest to open them and alert the bank that there may be a problem.

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