Council tax court summons!

Darg

Darg

Darg

Soldato
Joined
6 Sep 2006
Posts
6,302
Location
London
Hi all, I'll try to keep this brief, just looking for advice from people that have been in a similar situation.

So I'm responsible for paying the council tax for the house I live in, there are two other peoples names on the account but it's up to me to pay it. I avoid signing up for direct debits whenever possible so I've been paying the council tax manually each month. Now back in April and May of this year I forgot to pay it until the 24th in April and the 26th in May. Both months I received a final notice but paid within the 7 day limit of receiving it.

Since then I've been better with payments, paying on the 18th of June and the 10th of July. Each time I've checked my account online for the correct amount to pay and it's shown up as monthly payments due right up until atleast the July payment, not sure if I checked since then.

About a week ago however we got a separate letter to each of us summoning us to court on the 15th of August for failure to pay. I'm hoping it's just a mistake in their system. There is also an added charge of £65 for the honour of attending them in court. I immediately emailed them asking for clarification of the issue and a reversal of the extra charges, I offered to sign up for direct debit in exchange. I'm yet to receive a reply, I sent a second email today asking for a response.

I just checked my account today and only now does it look like it's been changed to an annual one off payment with absolutely no notice in the form of an email or a letter. Now I don't want to have to pay in a lump sum but I can afford to if necessary, what I really don't want to pay is this extra charge they tacked on and I also want to know why they're going to the effort of summoning me to court when I clearly pay my council tax and am not trying to defraud them in any way. The entire process makes me feel like I'm being treated as a criminal.

The last I heard from them was a mistaken final notice letter sent out around the 20th of July even though it's clearly marked on my account that I paid on the 10th of that month. I assumed that it was a mistake and that the letter got sent out before the payment was made so ignored it.

So where do I stand with this? If I don't hear back via email by Monday (I'm away tomorrow and over the weekend) then I plan to go down to their office in person and have a chat with someone there, hopefully it's something that can just be cleared up on the spot.
 
I'd head to the office in person or give them a call (if possible) as soon as you can to clear it up.

I know avoiding direct debits is a good idea for some things, but surely for mandatory things like this it's the best way to go?
 
Why do you avoid direct debit out of curiousity? It's designed as a convenience and you seem forgetful enough to warrant using it..
 
Darg said:
Hi all, I'll try to keep this brief, just looking for advice from people that have been in a similar situation.

So I'm responsible for paying the council tax for the house I live in, there are two other peoples names on the account but it's up to me to pay it. I avoid signing up for direct debits whenever possible so I've been paying the council tax manually each month. Now back in April and May of this year I forgot to pay it until the 24th in April and the 26th in May. Both months I received a final notice but paid within the 7 day limit of receiving it.

Since then I've been better with payments, paying on the 18th of June and the 10th of July. Each time I've checked my account online for the correct amount to pay and it's shown up as monthly payments due right up until atleast the July payment, not sure if I checked since then.

About a week ago however we got a separate letter to each of us summoning us to court on the 15th of August for failure to pay. I'm hoping it's just a mistake in their system. There is also an added charge of £65 for the honour of attending them in court. I immediately emailed them asking for clarification of the issue and a reversal of the extra charges, I offered to sign up for direct debit in exchange. I'm yet to receive a reply, I sent a second email today asking for a response.

I just checked my account today and only now does it look like it's been changed to an annual one off payment with absolutely no notice in the form of an email or a letter. Now I don't want to have to pay in a lump sum but I can afford to if necessary, what I really don't want to pay is this extra charge they tacked on and I also want to know why they're going to the effort of summoning me to court when I clearly pay my council tax and am not trying to defraud them in any way. The entire process makes me feel like I'm being treated as a criminal.

The last I heard from them was a mistaken final notice letter sent out around the 20th of July even though it's clearly marked on my account that I paid on the 10th of that month. I assumed that it was a mistake and that the letter got sent out before the payment was made so ignored it.

So where do I stand with this? If I don't hear back via email by Monday (I'm away tomorrow and over the weekend) then I plan to go down to their office in person and have a chat with someone there, hopefully it's something that can just be cleared up on the spot.
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Why not just pick the phone up and call them? You could have had it sorted in the time you have waited for an email reply.
 
I'm guessing they removed the monthly option due to poor payment history and are requiring it in full.

I'd be off down to the council offices to talk about it in person, yes it's probably an error on their part.
 
Ah, I should have mentioned that they don't talk about disputes like this on the phone. It was the first thing I tried when the lines opened on Monday (got the letter on Friday).

EDIT: They only accept disputes my email or letter.

I'll head down to the office and talk in person on Monday.

As for direct debits I got stung by some false payments made on my microsoft xbox account which was set up as direct debit. I've also been screwed over by an old ISP taking an additional two months payment from my account (which I eventually got back).

Direct debits basically give the other party the right to take any amount of money from your account, it's then on your shoulders to dispute that. I don't like that sort of business and only use them when absolutely unavoidable like for ISPs unfortunately.

I think I've learnt my lesson though and will sign up to direct debit for council tax from now on, I don't have a good enough memory to remember to pay near the start of the month every month!
 
They going to stick you in a dungeon. Debtors prison for you. Enjoy your cage.

debtors-prison-1.jpg
 
If I understand correctly you are being summoned to court for non payment, but you did actually pay it, albeit slightly late? Surely just write back to them recorded delivery with this information then attend court if absolutely required and show proof of payment? Yes it's a pain but if you have proof you paid then you won't be charged the summons fee when the case is found in your favour.




P.s. Pay ya council tax ya ***** :D



(kidding).
 
Darg said:
I avoid signing up for direct debits whenever possible
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Why?

Not only are you setting yourself up for extra charges for late payments for forgetting (as you've found out!), you're also missing out on discounts on various bills.

Darg said:
I immediately emailed them asking for clarification of the issue and a reversal of the extra charges, I offered to sign up for direct debit in exchange. I'm yet to receive a reply, I sent a second email today asking for a response.
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Why not phone them? As already posted, you could have spoken to someone and had it sorted already.

In my experience, if you're late paying a couple of times, they tend to treat it as non-payment, and request the full amount, even if at the point of your summons you are actually up to date with your payments :(

Chances are they won't waive the extra fee or cancel the court date, but they can put you on a payment plan, and you'll get a liability order.

This basically means if you miss any more payments, they can send round a bailiff or speak to your employer for an attachment of earnings order, where they take the payment directly from your wages before you even get it.

Hades said:
If I understand correctly you are being summoned to court for non payment, but you did actually pay it, albeit slightly late? Surely just write back to them recorded delivery with this information then attend court if absolutely required and show proof of payment? Yes it's a pain but if you have proof you paid then you won't be charged the summons fee when the case is found in your favour.
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It probably wont be found in his favour though, as he hasn't paid in the required timescale.

I was in a similar situation, and was told that the only way to avoid the extra fee would be to pay the entire amount before the court date.
 
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I was late paying twice and then they billed me for the full amount. Seems like its procedure to do that.
 
last time I forgot to pay on time (honestly I just forgot) and got a summons I just called them and really all they were interested in was putting something in the computer that said I intended to pay. Once I had agreed to pay the deficit it was job done. And because I acted promptly and only owed a single month they waived the £60 summons costs.

This was Reigate and Banstead though. I bet all councils are different and have different rules etc
 
It's also silly being scared of direct debit, read the direct debit guarantee, if there's any errors, it's your right to get an immediate refund from the bank.
 
Glaucus said:
It's also silly being scared of direct debit, read the direct debit guarantee, if there's any errors, it's your right to get an immediate refund from the bank.
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Tell that to the banks in Ireland! Both times I was told it was the responsibility of the other party to investigate. I was also told that you couldn't cancel a direct debit without the agreement of the other party.

With that sort of attitude from the banks you can probably see where my opinion of direct debit comes from.
 
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