Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice?

Iknow it’s computer-generated and not personal, but it made me mad all the same. “My records show that you have not met your LPT obligations in respect of this property.” He might have to call in the sheriff, apparently. They’re looking for €47.75. A direct debit that bounced in my rubbery account.

I feel like writing back, “My records show that there was talk of offering an LPT amnesty to the poor suckers who got screwed in the property boom and bust of a decade ago. But that didn’t happen and so we got double shafted.” We paid almost €70K in stamp duty in 2006. They hadn’t tweaked the stamp duty rates yet because it was so damn lucrative for the government and banks were lending recklessly to cover it. And the government was allowing them to. Funny enough.

Stamp duty increased the amount we had to borrow by around 20pc. It has taken two people years of work to pay off the loan to cover that tax. They could have eased the blow, as was mooted, by offering an LPT amnesty to people who had paid the worst stamp duty. But they didn’t. To add insult to injury, Local Property Tax could have been calculated on square footage, but no, it is calculated on “value”. Because as we all learned in 2008, house value is a real, tangible thing. Until it isn’t.

I could own a ranch in the Midlands and pay less LPT than on a poxy semi-d in Dublin.

We’re heading for another boom and bust in the property market. This is bad for everyone except the banks and the government. Those of us who have paid already, will pay again. Middle class, middle income, middle aged — three middles that have a big target painted on them.

Does anyone else feel like enough is enough?