Church and State blog: Ofcom refer Declan to the Postal Redress Service to solve the problem with our mail from HM Revenue and Customs (WITH UPDATE 29/11/2016)

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Ofcom refer Declan to the Postal Redress Service to solve the problem with our mail from HM Revenue and Customs (WITH UPDATE 29/11/2016)

On 19 October, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) put a stop on any correspondence being issued automatically to us until they can verify our Mailboxes Etc (MBE) address through the Royal Mail database. On 22 October, MBE UK Chairman Simon Cowie wrote: "I can't see a solution to this at the moment. We have no power to make Royal Mail change their database, nor to make HMRC accept our [Kings Cross location] address for their records." This morning Ofcom referred Declan to the Postal Redress Service (POSTRS) to solve the problem with our mail from HMRC. Declan lists the details in his application to POSTRS as follows:

Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have put a stop on any correspondence being issued automatically to me until they can verify my Mailboxes Etc (MBE) address through the Royal Mail database.

I rent a mailbox (Suite 101) from MBE at their Kings Cross location, 254 Pentonville Road, London N1 9JY. Currently, 254 Pentonville Road does not show on Royal Mail records under postcode N1 9JY. There are several flats at 252-254 Pentonville Road, N1 9JY, but no 254 Pentonville Road. On 22 October 2016, MBE (UK) Chairman Simon Cowie wrote: "I can't see a solution to this at the moment. We have no power to make Royal Mail change their database, nor to make HMRC accept our [Kings Cross location] address for their records."

According to Thames Water's website, there is an address for MBE Kings Cross (i.e. Business Mail Solutions Ltd, 254 Pentonville Road, London N1 9JY), but this address was rejected by HMRC because it could not be verified through the Royal Mail database. On 28 October 2016, HMRC Customer Service Manager Stephen Hughes wrote: "We have continued put a stop on any correspondence being issued automatically until your address has been updated."

On 18 November 2016, I requested from Royal Mail Chief Executive Moya Greene a full and final response from Royal Mail to my request that 254 Pentonville Road shows on Royal Mail records under postcode N1 9JY, so that I can receive my mail from HMRC. On 22 November 2016, I received Royal Mail's deadlock email. It informed me that, in accordance with a request from MBE on 21 October 2016, 254 Pentonville Road shows on Royal Mail records under the new postcode N1 9FQ.

I cannot use the new postcode N1 9FQ because it does not appear on MBE's website. I also cannot use the original postcode because 254 Pentonville Road is missing on Royal Mail's database under N1 9JY. MBE's website lists its Kings Cross location address as below:-

Mail Boxes Etc. London - Kings Cross
254 Pentonville Road
London
N1 9JY

I simply request that 254 Pentonville Road shows on Royal Mail records under postcode N1 9JY, so that I can receive my mail from HMRC. In a telephone conversation with Royal Mail Address Management Unit Manager Denise Boulter on 16 November 2016, I was told that the company did not have a complaints procedure for such a request (transcript available upon request).

UPDATE 29 November: This morning we received an email from Simon Cowie informing us that MBE had just changed the postcode on their website to N1 9FQ. Hopefully, this now solves the long-standing problem we have had with our mail from HMRC to our mailbox. Only time will tell I guess. This is Declan's email this afternoon to HMRC Chief Executive Jon Thompson:

29 November 2016

Dear Mr Thompson,

I wrote to you on 27 September 2016 about my concern that HMRC letters addressed to me had been returned to HMRC undelivered.

According to SAIL Business Solutions Ltd on 27 September, their postcode had been used by HMRC as my own for the second year in a row. Subsequently, HMRC put a stop on any correspondence being issued automatically to me because 254 Pentonville Road was not showing on Royal Mail records under postcode N1 9JY.

This morning Mail Boxes (UK) Ltd changed the address on their website to N1 9FQ to reflect its listing on the Royal Mail Postcode Address File since 21 October 2016 (please see MBE's email below). I therefore confirm my business address and personal contact address for HMRC records as below:-

254 Pentonville Road, Suite 101
Islington
London
N1 9FQ

Please would you provide me with a letter confirming that HMRC have the correct address above and that HMRC will not change my address again without notification from me. I also request the removal of the stop on my correspondence from HMRC.

Yours sincerely,

Declan Heavey
Managing Director
Network for Church Monitoring

29 September: Complaint to HMRC Chief Executive Jon Thompson: Declan is still waiting for assurance that HMRC has our correct address

Church and State

MAYOR OF LONDON RSI PROPERTY
DAY 406 IN A WEEKLY PERIODIC TENANCY
SUBJECT TO A SECTION 21 NOTICE

(SEE PARA. 3 BELOW)

1. Our 308 Honorary Associates include 20 Nobel Prize laureates. Declan and I are engaged in a project that deals with the publication of issues significant to social policy in a number of key areas, e.g., climate change, population, futurism, atheism, and free speech. Established as Network for Church Monitoring, a non-profit company limited by guarantee, our main publication, found at the website, Church and State, calls attention to subjects, not the least which have been critical of the interaction between religious and secular institutions. We have been the target of numerous threats and actions, e.g., the former resulting in threats to Declan's life, and the latter, which have led to vandalism. The various incidents are on record with the police and other official agencies.

2. There are no less than 63 Nobel Prize laureates on the Church and State website from 20 Honorary Associates, eight articles, nine book excerpts and 33 petition signatories. (For example, one Nobel laureate signed our Nobel petition in support of human embryonic stem cell research and gave us permission to excerpt from one of his books.) Our list of associates also includes 18 US National Medal laureates, and six Turing Award laureates (the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in computer science). We have published one article and excerpted from the books of seven members of the British House of Lords. And there are 31 knighted professors on the site from 13 Honorary Associates, one book excerpt and 21 petition signatories. These figures are despite the never-ending assault on our email (this link reveals the targeting of our emails to, among others, a close colleague in Washington, DC as well as space advocates and Nobel laureates).

3. This is Day 406 for us living under the threat to life of a 'no fault' eviction by Peabody Trust.[1] We live in a Mayor of London's Rough Sleepers Initiative (RSI) property. Peabody's appalling new terms of tenancy have forced us into an unstable weekly periodic tenancy that poses a threat to Declan's life and inhibits our ability to exercise our rights. Declan accumulated quite a history with the Housing Ombudsman Service before he received the Ombudsman's decision not to investigate a referral from Lyn Brown MP on jurisdictional grounds. The Ombudsman was asked to consider whether or not our tenancy has been renewed like for like; and whether, if not, it should be in light of the landlord having accused us of not signing a like-for-like agreement. The Equality and Human Rights Commission will not accept a referral of discrimination from Ms Brown, the Commission's helpline (EASS) having grossly distorted the complaint against Peabody. We no longer have pro se access to the courts (see next paragraph).

4. This eviction matter came before District Judge Ruth Fine at the Central London County Court on 30 June 2020, when both counsel for St Mungo's (the charity in effective control of our tenancy) and Declan presented their positions. Declan lost the case and was ordered to pay £1,850 in costs. A publishing colleague in America cleared these costs within 24 hours of my blog post about this hearing for strike out on a related issue that was the essence of the claim, i.e., that St Mungo's would take a phone call to confirm that we are clients of the Mayor of London's RSI programme. Within a week of the hearing, St Mungo's had agreed to take this phone call for us both, the Court having ruled that they were not obliged to do so despite our circumstances. This time we escaped bankruptcy (counsel for St Mungo's asked for £3,407.50 in costs), but consider that to seek pro se access to justice in the courts has become far too dangerous for us. Declan currently has before the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman the decision of the Information Commissioner that allows St Mungo's to continue processing coercive support plans without our knowledge or consent and that also poses a threat to his life.

5. When it comes to traffic, we have had 10.7 million hits in the past three years on Facebook; however, I left the platform on 13 March 2021 for one year rather than risk being banned for life. It is indisputable that with any sort of level playing field Church and State would have far exceeded 2.5 million hits last year. In addition to a large variety of blocks without explanation, Facebook had so severely restricted our Page's distribution by October 2020 that it was almost as good as an unpublished page.[2] Currently, we are up to their 85th block since 1 December 2015, and as usual without an explanation. This block records as one half of their 3rd double block in the first five weeks of this year that lasted 60 days. Our traffic has also been curtailed by over 2.5K blocks on access to Church and State since 26 July 2016, including 29 full distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks since 17 May 2019 that have lasted for as long as 54 hours at a time.[3] About 70% of our hits are from Americans.

"This is precisely the hard hitting kind of response needed to clarify the unfair way Facebook is treating your highly reputable site." Don Collins, Founder, International Services Assistance Fund, Washington DC

Last updated: 26/06/21

_________________________

[1] Once a fixed term has elapsed, the landlord has the option to seek eviction even if the tenant has upheld their obligations in full (though of course the landlord must still apply for and obtain a county court order).

[2] 17/10/20: We have permission to publish this ISAF letter of 30 September to Facebook COO Sheryl Samberg. Facebook has so severely restricted our Page's distribution since 4 September that it's almost as good as an unpublished page

[3] Since October 2019, we have been defining a full DDoS attack as having such a high volume of up to 4-minute blocks on access to Church and State that we don't bother recording them all.

Church and State blog

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Ofcom refer Declan to the Postal Redress Service to solve the problem with our mail from HM Revenue and Customs (WITH UPDATE 29/11/2016)

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