Council Tax issue

I agree that Councils are pretty draconian and intractable about late payments of Council Tax, they aren't interested in the reasons why. Though I would have thought you should have had a reminder when the first d/d date passed, maybe it got missed.

I would try and borrow off family or pay with credit card or if not, and I can't believe I'm suggesting this, maybe a payday loan as a last resort, but don't let it go to court. But make sure you pay the loan off in full on payday!
 
If this is the first summons, and all post has been delivered to you properly, this is NOT for a county court judgement or similar which could affect your credit record/file/whatever name you want to give it. It will be so that the council can apply for a Liability Order. Effectively this is a magistrate's agreement that you are liable to pay the amount the council thinks you owe and gives the council the legal right to pursue you for the money.

However, and importantly, it is NOT a CCJ.

Edit: normally you should get 14 days after a Liability Order to pay the amount before it gets sent to Bailiffs or similar. So if you're paying 2 days afterwards it may be fairly irrelevant.

Please note, I am not a solicitor and have no legal training, take what I say with a cartload of salt.
 
You could argue that you have been not billed incorrectly. The process is 1) initial bill is sent, 2) if no payment then a reminder is sent, 3) if no payment received - Final notice is issued (and monthly instalments removed), 4) if no response then you will be summonsed and then costs will be added onto account. Next stage is a liability order will be obtained from the Court, and then a 14 day notice is issued. You then are required to provided employment / benefit details to the Council. An attachment of earnings or benefit can then be set to collect the arrears owing or the debt can be sent to Bailiffs for collection.
My advice would be to ring your Council and ask for a 'Special Arrangement' to pay the arrears. Hopefully Council would give you 3 payments to clear the arrears before the new year bills start collecting in April 19.
 
How much are we talking? Unless you've got some massive mansion (which seems unlikely as you wouldn't have these problems) it's probably going to be in the region of £200-£300? That's really not worth going to court over.

I wouldn't really advise payday loan or overdraft either as you'll get stung with pretty high interest. By the sounds of it you know you already have the funds for it next pay day, so i would either stick it on credit, or borrow off someone.
 
Semple said:
How much are we talking? Unless you've got some massive mansion (which seems unlikely as you wouldn't have these problems) it's probably going to be in the region of £200-£300? That's really not worth going to court over.
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1st Nov to 31 March 2019 is 5 months, so approx £400-450 on a Band A property, so debt is significant.

Council will take debts over £150 to court, it will be handed over as batch to the magistrates at the monthly hearing. Magistrates will then grant the liability order on the debts en masse and then recovery of the debts will commence. Some councils will just send liability orders to bailiffs and then the bailiffs will send out the 14 day notices to customers.

If debt goes to bailiffs, you will be looking at an immediate compliance fee of £75 for the bailiffs, if you don't pay quickly and a visit is required, you will then get extra bailiff fees of approx £300 on top of your debt. So don't let it get that far, the debt will soon increase in size if it goes to bailiffs.
 
Super Tigers said:
1st Nov to 31 March 2019 is 5 months, so approx £400-450 on a Band A property, so debt is significant.

Council will take debts over £150 to court, it will be handed over as batch to the magistrates at the monthly hearing. Magistrates will then grant the liability order on the debts en masse and then recovery of the debts will commence. Some councils will just send liability orders to bailiffs and then the bailiffs will send out the 14 day notices to customers.

If debt goes to bailiffs, you will be looking at an immediate compliance fee of £75 for the bailiffs, if you don't pay quickly and a visit is required, you will then get extra bailiff fees of approx £300 on top of your debt. So don't let it get that far, the debt will soon increase in size if it goes to bailiffs.
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He only has to pay the missing 1 month instalment to cancel the summons
 
Freakbro said:
He only has to pay the missing 1 month instalment to cancel the summons
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If he has been summonsed for the debt, it is usual practice to withdraw the right to pay by instalments and the full balance is then payable i.e a Final notice has been served.
It sounds as if he has to pay the outstanding month's arrears and then a Special Arrangement will be set to collect the balance of the 2018-19 C/tax in February and March. The Council won't want to carry over the debt into 2019 billing year.
 
Scam said:
Don't do this. This is really, truly terrible advice. Risk a criminal record over this? Don't be daft. The council have set a machine rolling that is hard to stop. Be the bigger man, get it paid however you can (beg, borrow, maybe not steal) and then go after the morons if you can spare the time.

I once posted on here about getting taken to court by a train company for 'fare evasion'. I received a court summons out of the blue. I was absolutely determined to argue it, fight my corner, bring down the man etc. but I got proper advice from the CAB and they said it's just not worth the risk. The machine rolls on, the council/the man know exactly what they're doing. Don't think they haven't done this a million times -- and are probably quite successfully at it.

Get it paid.
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I’ll bare this in mind, I’m surprised anyone even wants to work for councils treating people like meat. Horrible people!
 
Sounds like citizens advice might be a good port of call,

There must be some way to get the council to call off the hounds.
 
I account for every penny in and out of my account several times a week. I have a monthly spreadsheet for the purpose and I account for everything. OP you obviously have your hands full and hope you get it sorted but as a general point you have to own your personal finances and you can’t rely on stuff just happening sadly
 
Freakbro said:
I agree that Councils are pretty draconian and intractable about late payments of Council Tax, they aren't interested in the reasons why. Though I would have thought you should have had a reminder when the first d/d date passed, maybe it got missed.

I would try and borrow off family or pay with credit card or if not, and I can't believe I'm suggesting this, maybe a payday loan as a last resort, but don't let it go to court. But make sure you pay the loan off in full on payday!
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The problem is you have a lot of people just outright lying with all kinds of excuses. Should the council blindly accept any old excuse, or be forced to investigate the excuse to determine if it is reasonable grounds? Neither is ideal.



I think the real issue is council tax should have been replaced about 50 years ago with a community tax. Something like 2% of salary, taken at source. The you don;t have any issues with non-payment.
 
You can imagine how many excuses the council gets for non-payment though, i am sure some of these are real and some are a bit fake drama and some simply protest and not pay. But they don't really have time to sieve through who are good on their word and pay that "2 days later, I promise"...I bet you a lot of people will say that and then when the deadline hits, they only pay half. People often think they can pay it off a month later but a month later will always mean another month has passed and your account is a month overdue and unless you can find double the money to pay 2 months, you will forever behind. So their best tactic is just be forceful and push for summons from the word go, it's amazing how many people will pay up straight away from credit card, borrowing from friends/family or selling stuff to get out of that situation instead of more false promises (not suggesting OP is one but the majority are).
 
D.P. said:
The problem is you have a lot of people just outright lying with all kinds of excuses. Should the council blindly accept any old excuse, or be forced to investigate the excuse to determine if it is reasonable grounds? Neither is ideal.
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But in my case they have failed to follow their own procedures.

According to their own Web site, failing to pay triggers a reminder letter, followed by a final notice THEN the summons.

This time, as far as we're concerned, we've Gone from original bill straight to summons, skipping 2 steps.
 
D.P. said:
I think the real issue is council tax should have been replaced about 50 years ago with a community tax. Something like 2% of salary, taken at source. The you don;t have any issues with non-payment.
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I was about to say "like the poll tax"? And realised it was actually called the community charge. Lol.

I always thought a poll tax was way fairer than an estimation of a valuation of your house done by driving past it in the 70s personally... Council tax bands are a joke.
 
Resident said:
But in my case they have failed to follow their own procedures.

According to their own Web site, failing to pay triggers a reminder letter, followed by a final notice THEN the summons.

This time, as far as we're concerned, we've Gone from original bill straight to summons, skipping 2 steps.
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That is something you would have to take up with the magistrates as a defence, the guy on the other end of the phone will just have to follow procedures as per any non-payment case. Besides, the summons has been issued and the only way they are going to withdraw it is if the balance owes turns to £0.
 
Don't you have a credit card for emergencies just in case? Please don't risk going to court over this.
 
Don't go to war over taxes. You're not likely to win. I would suggest calling them and asking for a payment plan to repay in installments. There is no question you owe the money. The only question is whether the right procedures were followed, when and how you pay it back. Even if procedures were not followed then you'd just get a new reminder letter. So plead poverty and ask for a payment plan.

A few years ago the Inland Revenue chased me for £7k tax which they had not collected. it was their fault entirely and I had even contacted them in the past with concerns they were not collecting enough. But after an investigation they assured me the amount was correct. Then five years later realised I was right and demanded the full amount back immediately. I explained the situation politely and simply said I didn't have the money but would be happy to pay back in installments. So they setup a payment plan over a year.
 
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