Thread: Council inflexible over council tax

Hi all

My council tax is due on the first of each month and payable over 10 months of the year. Twice I have paid it a little later in the month as I haven't had the money on the first. (I pay online and not by DD). I had a letter through saying the next time I am late no more reminders would be sent and court action would be taken.

My argument is - I'm still within the month and I'm not refusing to pay - just a couple of weeks late sometimes. They won't let me spread it over 12 months instead of 10. They are so inflexible. They said that's the regulations and all councils are the same. I'm a student, but because my son is now over 18 I have to pay the council tax.

I think it is wrong that they can be so highly litigious.

Any advice would be appreciated. I know I still have to pay, I just want them to be a little more flexible. Or am I being unrealistic?

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I'll be honest, it's a priority debt and should be paid above and beyond any other non-priority debts (i.e. credit debts). It is in the regulations but you could always consider a complaint to the local government Ombudsman. On a side-note you are invisible with regards to c.tax, your son should pay it all, although i appreciate that might not be possible.

Not all councils are the same, some are more aggressive than others
My council does not chase until you are about two months in arrears.
I didn't pay in August as my bank took £425.- in charges off me in eight weeks and therefore started to bounce direct debits like my mortgage incurring further fees.
Priority debt or not, there was nothing left for council tax, so I am a month behind but have heard nothing from them.
A colleague of mine who used to work for our local council told me they don't bother chasing until you are more than two months in arrears as two months can be made up at the end of the payment term by making two additional payments. They simply don't have the staff to pursue small arrears apparently
So not all councils are the same.(Luckily)

I agree, not all councils are the same and if you contact Customer Services (or whoever your council says to contact) they are pretty rigid.

We had an arrangement to pay back some council tax from the previous 5 years (when we weren't living in the house and we believed it was exempt because major building work was required to make it habitable). Seems they classed it as a second home and decided it wasn't exempt even though we were on Income Support and got 100% benefits on our then existing home.

We still get Housing Benefit but every year (without fail) we get the usual demand for the current year, plus arrears minus the benefit. The computer churns this out and calculates the monthly payment in 10 instalments. We used to pay by DD and instead of the usual payment (£20 a month to clear the arrears) they took £250 from our benefit and left us hardly any money to live on. I went to the bank and they contacted the council and explained the position. They passed me the phone and I spoke with the so called Customer Services at the council and was told "tough".

When I got home I asked to speak to the guy who I had made the arrangement with. He was lovely, he agreed that the bank should have returned the huge DD payment and that I should ignore anything their Customer Services send out and that my arrangement stands.

What I'm really trying to say here is don't be fobbed off by the monkey, speak with the organ grinder - he's the one who can make a decision, the others only do as they are told.

Our council give a choice of 2 payment dates, the 1st or the 15th of the month. Apart from that they are extremely rigid... probably because they are broke, having mismanaged their finances and lost £1m!

Thanks for all your comments. I agree it is a priority debt, but it would help if the councils were more understanding, or at least all the same in their policies.

Sometimes the chiefs don't know the answers themselves. On the subject of housing benefit for students - the head of revenues and benefits, with whom I had a meeting yesterday, didn't know how it was calculated and why. He had to go away and do some research but he did contact me again later that day.

in my experience it is not only the council who vary their opinion, it is also the council workers. i was in exactly the same position as the op and also missed a months payment completely. and i phoned up to sort it out only to be told ' it is council policy- you had two warnings, no more. the full year is now to be payable. pay up the full year NOW or we'll see you in court'- well words to that effect. i put the phone down and spent the next week or so feeling sick. one day, though i thought' i'm going to give it one more try. i got somebody different who said as long as it is paid regularly i could split the missed month over the remaining payment period. i did that and all was fine.IMHO i would say as long as you keep up the payments they wont take you to court, because if they did the judge would look at your payment history and see that although you pay late each month, you do actually pay, and this will look bad on your council.

I agree. I have one missed payment this year so far and have heard nothing, and knowing what I know about the Council Tax department they probably haven't even noticed.
A colleague of mine used to work there and was made redundant due to cut backs. Even when they had loads of people there they didn't get around chasing arrears unless they were more than two months. Now of course with less people managing more accounts they are even more stretched.
I honestly think they don't even notice unless you phone them to "come to an arrangement" and basically then inadvertently point it out to them.
Sometimes it's better to lie low and wait what happens.