Disabled pensioner from Croy battles Highland Council ‘grave robbers’ over dead mum’s £12,000 council tax debt for Skye property
A disabled pensioner is being pursued for a £12,000 council tax debt owed by his dead mum.
Retired offshore worker Donald Macpherson (67) says he has been “constantly harassed” by Highland Council over the unpaid bill despite having no savings with which to pay it.
Describing his experience over the last two years as “harrowing”, Mr Macpherson says a renewed flurry of demands from the local authority has brought back the grief that sent him into a downward spiral of mental health problems two years ago.
Mr Macpherson was carer for mother Jeanetta Mackenzie at her home at 6 Dalcroy Green, Croy, as she suffered the severe ill-effects of Parkinson’s disease during the last five years of her life.
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Demand letters began to arrive just a couple of weeks after she died in February 2022, at the age of 83.
Highland Council has told the Courier it is completely within its rights to pursue the debt, which should have been settled by the executor of Mrs Mackenzie’s estate, Mr Macpherson himself.
Mr Macpherson says he needed grief counselling in the aftermath of his mum’s passing as he dealt with a profound sense of loss.
Throughout that time, and despite his protestations, the council kept up demands for payment in full of a total of £12,256.15 overdue on the property Mrs Mackenzie had left him at 8 Moorlands, Breakish, on Skye.
Up until six months before her death, the widow had been paying a twin mortgage of over £800 and struggled to meet other bills.
The property near Broadford was unoccupied and in a dire state of ill-repair, and still lies empty, but holds sentimental value to Mr Macpherson who lives at the Croy address.
He acknowledges that the two homes he inherited represent assets that could be sold, but feels it is wrong for the council to pressure him, or rush him into a decision on what to do with them.
He also feels it is wrong morally for the council to pursue him for a debt “from beyond the grave”.
Prior to her death, Mrs Mackenzie had an agreement with Highland Council to repay the sum at £40 a month.
Mr Macpherson says he has not been offered a repayment plan by the council and, in any case, feels strongly that he should not have to pay.
He lives off a pension of £239 a week, plus disability benefit for severe rheumatoid arthritis and pension credit.
Mr Macpherson, who grew up in Skye before becoming a blaster/sprayer on North Sea rigs, said: “I can’t tell you the distress this has caused me.
“It has been a harrowing experience.
“With the bereavement I suffered, it is bringing everything back on top of me. I felt like I’d only just got back on my feet and now it is starting again.
“Highland Council were almost immediately onto me just a few weeks after my mother passed away.
“I was receiving bereavement counselling after mum’s death, suffering really badly, but they just kept at me.
“Most of us have to deal with the death of our parents, but for me the whole process of being mum’s carer, with what she went through with her health, made it very difficult.
“She was an invalid with Parkinson’s in later life and I gave up my job to come home in 2017 to care for her. I did everything for her as she couldn’t look after herself.
“I’ve sent them letters pleading with them to stop, but they won’t. They just want the money.
“How low can you stoop, looking for money off deceased people? It harks back to the days of grave robbing.”
It seems clear that Highland Council is acting within its legal rights to pursue the debt through Mr Macpherson.
When asked, the local authority declined to discuss whether the demand was morally acceptable, but a spokeswoman said: “While the Council does not comment on individual cases, all outstanding sums of council tax fall to the estate of the deceased person and these sums should be deducted from the estate before distributing any possessions and assets to beneficiaries.
“Where the deceased person does not have possessions and assets, outstanding sums of council tax are not pursued by the council.”
Mr Macpherson remains unrepentant.
He is refusing to be forced into selling either the modest two-bedroom retirement home he lives in at Croy or the dilapidated family home on Skye.
“I read in the Courier years ago that the council, through a collection agency, were sending demand letters out to deceased people. This, for me, is exactly the same,” he stressed.
“I don’t think it is very fair or nice. The stress they have constantly been placing on me is acceptable.
“I spent last Christmas, and the Christmas before, by my mother’s graveside. It was the only place I could find comfort.
“I’ve explained it all to the council, but they just don’t care. We are just a number to them.
“I’ve told them that I’m not in a position to pay this money. It would cause me an awful lot of hardship to take out a loan of £12,000, given pensions nowadays. I wouldn’t be able to heat my house.
“I’m quite ill myself with rheumatoid arthritis and need to give myself a daily injection.
“I have good days and bad days, but stress like this just brings everything all upon me.
“I don’t enjoy airing this publicly, but I feel strongly that people should know what the council is doing. I’m concerned that others are going through the same as me.”
