| Help Us To Spread The Word. Just click the "Digg It" button and, well, DIGG IT! | |
 |
 |
| | home | sign up | news tips | permalink | |
Absurdly, under the new plans, you can even be charged extra for having a "good view," although, how they can qualify what is or is not a "good view" is beyond me! To make matters worse, if we don't "reasonably assist" them they can fine us £1000 plus £200 every day after that. Oh, and you'll get a police record too. This is beyond crazy! Whatever happened to a man's home being his castle? By law it is illegal for ANYBODY to enter your property unless they have your permission or a warrant and that "anybody" includes baliffs, salespeople, police officers and, yes, council representives. So if one of these council spies wants to examine your property, you have the right to refuse entry. At least that is the current law, anyway... One thing is clear: The government wants the POWER to invade your privacy and examine your home whether you want them to or not and so a "workaround" to this "little" human rights problem was needed and they seem to have solved it in their usual style! As mentioned above, should you refuse to allow them entry to your home, you can be fined for "not reasonably assisting." So now, whether you want them in your home or not comes down to a simple choice: Pay a £1,000 fine plus £200 per day or invite them in! Not much of a choice, is it? That said, surely incurring a fine for choosing not to give somebody permission to enter your home is a clear violation of your right to privacy and your right to protect your own private property, isn't it? So far, this just applies in Northern Ireland where it is being "trialled". Yeah, some trial - trialling it across an entire country!!! You can bet your bottom dollar this will be deemed a resounding success and will be forced upon the rest of the UK before you can say "how much?!"
And don't listen to the spin: Peter Hain, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and Wales, says "it will be a fairer system", but for whom, exactly, will it be "fairer"? Who decides on the valuation? The council do, so they will set the value as high as they possibly can to ensure that they will be getting maximum council tax from you.
That is their justification, but why would they need to go into your home to determine this? They have all the house price data they could possibly require and, I would assume, they have access to even more data and trends etc "since the last national revaluation". Besides, they never needed to before when valuing your home, so why do they need to now? Just to be helpful, if you want to reduce your council tax payments, read these tips. On a more personal note, my parent's home was orignally in a band higher than the identical property next door. Luckily, they listened when I told them to challenge it and - "Bingo" - lower band!
Be under no illusions, the council and/or state will always try to get away with cheating you...Don't let them. You work damned hard just to "make ends meet", don't go giving it away to warmongers and liars so that they can spend it on more wars and more lies! Anyway, back to the point: Will they use this power to expand the law for more sinister purposes? What legal protection will we have from the state? Will they give themselves the power to break in? That may sound absurd but, before you make up your mind, read this.
I truly object to council spies, or anybody for that matter, spying on and photographing me or my property. It is another form of CONTROL and control is the opposite of FREEDOM. I hope you object too because if you roll over and let them then, like bullies, they will come back for even more.
===
Take care,
TAS Fight For Our Freedom - My Blog |
|
|
