A BBC star has spoken out about a struggle she faced over a council tax bill. Comedian Katherine Ryan, who is currently pregnant with her fourth child, said that her complaints fell silent as she tried to oppose a huge fee.

Speaking on her podcast Telling Everybody Everything, Katherine, 42, explained how she had been treated like a tax dodger after a council blunder saw her wrongly held responsible for £10,000 in unpaid bills. The star and her husband, Bobby, had been footing the council tax bill for her tenants at a London flat since they first rented it out in October 2023. The payments were a gesture of goodwill for her tenants, which she and her partner paid voluntarily. However, their good deed came back to bite them in the backside as Katherine shared how was shocked to discover that Haringey Council believed she still lived there. As a result, they classed the property as a second home and hiked her council tax by a whopping 200%.

She sent them the tenancy agreement as proof that it wasn't her second home, and explained: "We pay the council tax because we want to make it seamless for everyone, but we don't live there.” The BBC star didn't make payments to reflect the bill and soon enough bailiffs were banging at her door.

Katherine explained that she had an absolute nightmare getting hold of anyone at the council. She shared: "I never got a reply. I emailed four times. I called and was on hold for 40 minutes - then they just sent me back to the switchboard.”

Eventually she travelled down to the council offices herself to demand to speak to someone. “I finally spoke to a woman who said, ‘Oh yeah, we didn’t receive any of your letters'," she said.

“She goes, ‘We can’t go after you for council tax because you don’t live there.’ And I was like, ‘Well, apparently you can - I’ve paid you ten grand and you’ve sent bailiffs to my house. Twice.’”

Katherine was told she could apply for a refund but that the council would now send her tenants a backdated bill for the entire period.

“I was like, ‘What!? You’re going to send my tenants a bill for ten grand dating back two years?’ She’s like, ‘Yep... Sometimes this causes problems - tell them not to freak out.’”

She asked if the credit could be transferred but was told the tenants were “just going to get a big bill.” Katherine fumed: “Luckily, I’m in contact with the tenants. They trust me... But the bureaucracy! What if English wasn’t my first language? Navigating all of this, there's got to be a better way.”