Hi, first of all sorry if this is in the wrong place.

I have set this account up for my friend as she is too scared to come on here herself as she thinks she will be judged. I myself am a regular user and have received some fantastic help and advice in the past. Once this first step is over she may be strong enough to talk herself.

Basically her problem is she hasn't received a council tax bill since 2003 !!!! She was a student and was exempt. The last bill she received was in 2003 with a balance of 0. She then began employment in Oct 2003 and foolishly done nothing about the tax. No bills have been received. I personally can't believe they have let this slip through the net. However what's done is done and she now wants to sort this out. I suppose my questions are these.....

If she rings them now what is likely to happen ? She needs to start paying

Would they accept a payment plan ? Or would they want it all at once ?

She think they will send her to prison ? She isn't stupid and realises she should have contacted them.

She doesn't have any lump sum she could give.

Many thanks for any advice.

Moved to Council Tax forum

Hi, first of all sorry if this is in the wrong place.

I have set this account up for my friend as she is too scared to come on here herself as she thinks she will be judged. I myself am a regular user and have received some fantastic help and advice in the past. Once this first step is over she may be strong enough to talk herself.

 

Basically her problem is she hasn't received a council tax bill since 2003 !!!! She was a student and was exempt. The last bill she received was in 2003 with a balance of 0. She then began employment in Oct 2003 and foolishly done nothing about the tax. No bills have been received. I personally can't believe they have let this slip through the net. However what's done is done and she now wants to sort this out. I suppose my questions are these.....

If she rings them now what is likely to happen ? She needs to start paying

Would they accept a payment plan ? Or would they want it all at once ?

She think they will send her to prison ? She isn't stupid and realises she should have contacted them.

 

She doesn't have any lump sum she could give.

 

Many thanks for any advice.

If she rings them they will finally tell her the monies are due immediately. They will probably seek a Liability Order on most which adds extra charges and then because she has no chance of paying within a short time frame will hand it to Bailiffs. In the present economic climate Councils are not known for being friendly.

PT

Yes they should have picked this up. I'm not how it works in other councils, but at mine when an exemption is put on an end date is entered and a new bill issued on that date with the exemption removed.

They will probably ask for the balance all at once but they should accept a payment plan and as long as it that is kept to she -shouldn't- have any big problems, however she needs to be aware that this will be a large amount of money to pay. The council cannot turn payments away as that doesn't help their case in the slightest. I'm not sure how quickly a liability order would be issued because I don't know whether this debt would just be added to the account and a LO issued when it hasn't been paid in a couple of months, or if it will go straight to LO because your friend should have contacted them about it. I strongly doubt she will go to prison. Prison is a last resort for people who refuse to pay; I don't think that's the situation here.