Durham area? Hope you will complain to your Council

Because they have no case to pursue I imagine.
biba You are Swiss and have dual nationality but do not live anywhere near Durham, so your interest in this matter where there is no case to answer anyway) is a bit bizarre.
You seem to have it in for Dominic Cummings, even though it isn’t him that built a house in the grounds, but his relatives.
Scraping the barrel ( and an old barrel by the sounds of it.)

I sincerely hope that the people in that Council will challenge the decision, in the Press, with their MPs, and more. That money was stolen fraudulently from the people of the area- and lost to the services.

Some of the land will be agricultural land, the properties could have a section 52 , so different tax and not straight forward to sort out so many years later, who knows, councils have amalgamated, (ours has) since 2002, so could be a minefield if this is the case. Most likely though the time limit has run out for back tax! Simple as that!

Jabberwock, at the moment, the position is that no action is going to be taken! That is £30,000 to £50,000 lost to the local council. I cannot understand why they are not pursuing it.

No doubt it will sorted out!

No-one currently knws exactly how the massive building on the Cummings land has come about - however, there is clear and abundant evidence, that they have not been paying Council Tax on it. Clear as a bell.

No Jaberw- the fact people have been sent to prison, and lost their home- is NOT a matter of opinion. Thanks.

MayI remind you too, that I am not the only Gransnetter who currently lives outside the UK, thank you.

They have for not paying a TV licence! If these peop!e are guilty no doubt they'll have to pay as far back as the law allows, but no one on here can dictate that!

Jabberwock, people have been imprisoned for failing to pay council tax and for a lot less than the Cummings family owe.
www.theguardian.com/money/2019/apr/12/woman-jailed-council-tax-bill-she-could-not-pay

Eh?!! Again biba a matter of opinion! Again you have no.proof of anything!

Ah but they don't own acres of countryside and they don't have in-laws with a castle!

Jaberwork, I am British, have been a British tax payer from the age of 19 (and that was a looong time ago)- and still am- and still pay my council taxes and abide by UK Law. So is all my family. Please desist these ridiculous comments.

Some people have had their houses bulldozed for planning infringement, and people are losing their homes and even going to prison, for not being able to pay their council tax due to extreme hardship.

Yes of course there are, but no one can categorically know that about an event 20 odd years ago! Perhaps the family don't feel that explanations are any business of the general public! I honestly can't see biba that it is anything to do with you! I certainly wouldn't consider any possible infringement of Swiss law anything to do with me which I'm sure you'd be the first to tell me!!

It's 30 years since the council worker was killed in the course of his work. So there were some regulations being enforced. Just not for the Cummings.

That was an entirely different case. For a start he'd already been refused planning permission and the building was visible.

Incidentally, in his blog Cummings claimed that he and his father built one of the properties; described it as a 'bunker'.

Nor is the spot particularly isolated, as in way out in the countryside. It's not far from Durham. But, as I said, it's not particularly visible from the road and the few neighbours there are, the farm development and the pub, may not have been particularly interested.

I wouldn't be too surprised about a builder willing to take a backhander, though. There are cowboys in every trade.

Jaberwok, if it was all above board, then it would be esay for the family to agree to comment and just explain how and why it is.

And that is why if I lived in the region, and was a tax payer, I would not let this one drop. That unpaid money belongs to all, and especially those who do things legally and above board, honestly, and pay their dues- for all the local services.

Jaberwok Wow who pushed your buttons! I only know from personal experience that builders often have close contacts with the council dept in the areas where they work because they are constantly approaching them about work they are doing. Of course the builders may have gone, the council staff will have changed as well, that doesn't mean nothing was known when the building work was done.
Why is it OK to say that nothing was known, but wrong to say that possibly things were known but ignored? No one knows what went on.
It's 30 years since the council worker was killed in the course of his work. So there were some regulations being enforced. Just not for the Cummings.

MazieD is right - the house on the front of the site actually looks like a little cottage, but I’m sure it’s got a swimming pool - it did have one years ago, when it changed hands.
Planning rules are rubbish around here. Friend’s live near an old Garden Centre which traded as caravan storage without permission. It’s in a green belt, but permission’s now been given, without informing the nearest dwellings to demolish it and turn the site into a Builders Merchants.

On our local news, the PA said it didn’t comment on individual cases and The Cummings Family declined to comment - I bet they did!!

And you definitely know all this trisher?! FGS it was 20 years ago, who knows the circumstances, they or it, possibly had a section 50 put on them as farm properties quite often did, the builders have possibly ceased to do exist long ago, neighbours too! you are in fact making particular allegations to which you have no first hand knowledge only generilisation and shed loads of prejudice.

Well MaizieD the builder, whoever did the designs, other trades people etc might reasonably have been expected to know about the buildings. Indeed reputable builders are keen to know about planning and building regs, because they make contacts and attract business, by talking about, and showing, their work. So somebody must have been dropped a back hander to keep quiet. It may be an isolated spot but in isolated spots any activity is big news and is always talked about..

trisher, the Cummings' buildings are hidden from the road by hedges and would be fairly difficult to spot. It's a busy dual carriageway, not many people on foot go past the house. Their nearest neighbours about half a mile north up the road is a farmyard development, funnily enough originally owned and developed by another branch of the family. So they weren't likely to sprag were they?
It's a relatively isolated spot. Nothing across the road from them or for a considerable distance to the south.

Besides which, who bothers to investigate the legality of new building works? You just assume that it's all above board.

It is not a matter of opinion, but planning Law- re fraud and deliberate concealement.

That's a matter of opinion biba. In this country we are still allowed opinions that differ from other people, I've no idea about Switzerland! As for planning law, this changes over the course of time and proving anything going back nearly 20 years can be extremely difficult particularly for peop!e who haven't a clue about the circumstances or the appropriate law at that time. Witch hunts are never attractive!

lemongrove, it is not complicated, at all. The Law is clear that Councils can go back way beyond 4 years, in the case of deliberate concealement and fraud. Maizie's quote of the Law is VERY clear on this.

Where I live is totally irrelevant in this case. That unpaid tax does not belong to the Council, it belongs to the services of the local people in the region- and could have been used for schools, social or other services. Jaberwork, hence the 'outrage' - of course the fact it is Cummings, who is currently causing so much damage to the people of the UK, is relevant- VERY much so.

I do wonder if Conservative voters can in all honesty justify the behaviour of those they have elected? I strongly suspect that behind the scenes (and in plain sight) many of the 'elite' are squirreling away money and transferring savings before the Brexit deadline. They have already awarded huge contracts to private companies which they themselves or friends have vested interests in only for these companies to fail to deliver - where did the money go? I think a lot of us British people are very happy to point the finger at other countries whose leaders are openly 'crooked' and now we are very much in the same boat with apparently no recourse.

On come on! All this outrage is only because of who it is! Anyone else would hardly get a mention. Apart from council tax going forward, the property is way out of time for any other action! Sorry to disapoint!