Hi,

Our local council took my partner to court for non payment in Jan '08 and obtained a liability order. We have just received a letter from a bailiff demanding payment immediately. I just wanted to check whether or not the council acted correctly by only taking my partner to court and not both of us seeing the council tax bills are in both names. I was thinking that surely they cannot take only one person to court and hold them solely reponsible for the bill while i potentially just get away with paying nothing?

The reason i ask is because i know i have to pay this but would to find a way of getting longer to pay due to a council mistake and therefore not making me struggle beyond my means.

Thanks

Steve

It depends who's name was on the account - if it was only in your partners name then they are the only one who cann be pursued for the debt. If both names where on the account then the council will have obtained Liability Orders in both names however it is then up to the council to pursue which ever of the named persons they wish.

Legally you are joint and severable for the council tax as his partner but the council can only go after the one who is named on the account when the court summons was issued which lead to the Liability Order being issued.

In many cases you may both be shown on the bill but if one party is named only as an occupier and not one of the liable parties then they cannot be pursued.

What actually was we both purchased the house and all bills are joint including the council tax. We both got a summons to attend court for non payment of the council tax. On the day before i contacted the council and asked if we could come to an agreement and was told that someone would contact me to arrange for an agreement to be setup. They also said they would stop the proceedings for the following day. They said that when i am contacted if i do not keep to the agreement they would take court action again. I was never contacted. What happened is my partner received a letter stating that a liability order was issued. What i think happened is they stopped the action against me but not my partner which leads to me think they have messed up. Since that we have both be taken to court and had another liability order issued for this year but this has since been settled. Hope this helps explain the situaion better?