Hi,

Im hoping I can get some advice. I have been on maternity leave and am due to start work again next week. During this time I had fallen into arrears with my council tax, only £124, I recieved a notice from them last month and therefore emailed my council to explain that I would clear these arrears on my return to work and to take note that i had still been making regular payments to my council tax account. I also requested a statement of my payments.

I didnot hear back until today when I received a court summons for hte end of the month and the court charges are almost as much as the arrears I am in.

I am so angry that they did not even respond to my previous contact and the court date is while I am at work, I am not disputing the arrears and I will pay it when I can, however I do not think I should pay the charges as I will pay the arrears before the court date.

Do I have a case to not pay the charges and to complain about the fact they never bothered to respond to my previous email?

Sorry if I am ranting, I am so angry.

Thanks for any advice x

worth a try

is this the first time you have defaULTED?

the charge is actually the 'going to court' for a liabilty order

so's you might not get it back. but again, worth a try.

are you sure they got your email?

thats why a letter of call is sometimes batter

atleast you know it got seen.

dx

As dx says. Councils are very unlikely to refund the court fee as that is how they make extra money.

You should have had a reminder and then a second reminder saying that if it is not paid within 14 days then they will apply for a liability order.

If you haven't received these reminders, then do a sar (£10) and you will get back everything including any letters you sent them as well as what they sent you. If there are no copies of the reminders, then demand they refund the court fee as they will not have followed the regulations on the collection of council tax.

I've said this in a lot of threads, but worth saying once more. In 2008, councils in England collected in excess of £200million in court fees alone for liability orders, so you can see it is a good moneymaker they wont want to give up. It is really a penalty as the actual cost of the liability order is £3 (three).

Thanks very much for your advice, will definitly do a subject access request as I did not receive a letter 14 days before and I can understand why now, they would much rather make a profit by the liability order.

Surely this recognisably a ridiculously out of proportion profit for them, how can they be allowed to get away with it?

Thanks anyway, will let you know how I get on.