Wonder if anyone up to speed on this-am dealing for a friend of mine.

Basically he bought the second house with the intention of doing it up and renting out.

He is builder.

House was boarded up and in bad state of repair.

Council gave him 12 months free of Council tax-then levied the full rate less 10%.

Due to the credit crunch no work was done on the property.

He paid the full rate less 10% (£907) for 2009/2010.

After missing a payment in January-Council secured a liability order-and bailiffs collected the remainder of the 2009/10 charges of £154.00.

He failed to make the first payment of the 2010 instalment-so the Council have issued a summons.

In April he signed on for Jobseekers allowance but it seems the Council were not informed.

In addition to the Summons for the second home-he has recieved a summons for full council tax for his main home.

He called them and explained the situation today.

They say that they will send forms out and that his main bill will be ammended to take into account he is unemployed.

The second home bill will stand with a discount of 10%.

No one lives there it is unfurnished and has no Gas or Electricity connected.

The Council say that he needs to make a suitable offer of repayment for the second home.

My questions are;

1.A hearing for both summonses has been arranged for June 8th.

Given that he has informed them of his unemployment -will the summons for the first home be withdrawn ?

2.Given that he is unemployed can he make an offer to repay the second home at the minimum £3.27 as guidelines suggest for a person in rec of benefits (ask for this to be taken from his benefits ) ?

Both summonses are for charges from 1/04/2010-31/03/2011

Any pointers please ?

I am thinking of putting something in writing to the Council for him,and CC also to the Magistrates Court for production at hearing.

I Am thinking that if the Council did get a liability order issued-then a warrant could not be actioned on a person in reciept of benefits ?

Can anyone confirm if this would be the case ?

Ta.

1)

There are no grounds to withdraw a summons because of unemployment. The Court Summons is valid as would any Liability Order granted.

2)

The minimum deduction from benefits is £3.30 per week. He can offer but the council dont have to accept.

Its also unlikely that he would get Council Tax Benefit as he owns a second home which would take him over the capital limits.

duplicate post