council tax problem

vergil · 28th March 2007, 23:49

I was in arrers of £624. with the local council tax payments. I recieived a letter for a court sommons, when i called the council i was advised that this was not neccessary to appear as this was the proccess for the council to obtain the power to recover the debt. They advised that this could not be make by the council themselves as it was to close to the end of the financial year. Since i have discovered if i had appeared i could have made a payment plan and put our casen to the court. I then recievied a demand for the full amount by the end of the this financial year, ie Saturday the 31/03/07. I have written to the council and explaned we only have one income and 3 young children but we have offered to pay £60.00 a month for the next 10 months and have already paid £24.00 as proof of future payments. i then recivied a furth letter saying that this was not acceptiable and full payment need to be paid by the 31/03/07 or the debt would be passed over to the bailiffs to come and collect the vaule in my home possestions. the council have said if this had been any other time of the year a planment plan would could be set up. but i feel we are now being penalised as we have never had any warning letter that we had fallen behind with payments. What do i do please help?

Information Commissioners Office · 31st March 2007, 17:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by vergil

I was in arrers of £624. with the local council tax payments. I recieived a letter for a court sommons, when i called the council i was advised that this was not neccessary to appear as this was the proccess for the council to obtain the power to recover the debt. They advised that this could not be make by the council themselves as it was to close to the end of the financial year. Since i have discovered if i had appeared i could have made a payment plan and put our casen to the court. I then recievied a demand for the full amount by the end of the this financial year, ie Saturday the 31/03/07. I have written to the council and explaned we only have one income and 3 young children but we have offered to pay £60.00 a month for the next 10 months and have already paid £24.00 as proof of future payments. i then recivied a furth letter saying that this was not acceptiable and full payment need to be paid by the 31/03/07 or the debt would be passed over to the bailiffs to come and collect the vaule in my home possestions. the council have said if this had been any other time of the year a planment plan would could be set up. but i feel we are now being penalised as we have never had any warning letter that we had fallen behind with payments. What do i do please help?

Don't panic there, I have had a similar situation with the council. As far as I know there is no reason why they can not add your arrears onto this years bill and then you just make the higher payments.

I argued with mine for nearly a month, the first I knew I owed council tax was when a bailiff charged me 28.00 to knock my door and tell me !! It involved sending bank statements etc to proved I hadn't lived at the property for nearly a year and eventually got the debt down from £1500 to £250. I also refused to pay bailiff fees !!! So you could try this . . . . I argued that they could not charge me £28.00 to tell me I owed something when the debt was already in dispute and I would pay everything but that fee !!!!

I showed them a copy of my financial incoming/outgoing and it showed I could only afford £40 per month, they at first refused stating that a judgement had already been placed against me and demanded more . . . .

I stuck to my guns and said you can only have what I have to give !!!! Finally they accepted it . . .

Keep you chin up, there is some brilliant advice on what a bailiff can and can't do . . . if you visit direct.gov.

Don't let the bailiff come into your home and contact your local court to have the bailiff suspended, due to your circumstances . . . and explain their is a dispute on the debt . . .

Hope you do get it sorted !!!

I have had some crazy issues with council tax, my issue was nearly two years ago. It's all settled but I still have a special file with every letter, proof of delivery and final settlement in there !!! Just in case they come back for more !!!!

PizzaMaker · 1st April 2007, 16:13

The council have advised you that you did not need to go to court. They should not have advised this.

This is the date they are getting the liability order so they can then pass it onto a bailiff company to enforce.

You could have turned up at court, you would not have had to go into the court but would have seen a council employee who would have asked if you can pay this debt over a period of time and if you agreed they would not have issued a liability order.

The council i am with use their own internal bailiffs.

As with the above, this may not be what all councils do.

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