In a letter dated 12th Jan I was told the council were taking out a liability order- the court hearing was scheduled for Jan 28th.According to them I owed £142 - 2 monthly payments of £71 Jan and Feb.I had already paid this amount the day before this letter so was in fact a month in credit.However it appears that I wrongly assumed that they wouldn't go to court as last week received a letter acknowledging my payment but demanding £86 court costs and threatening the bailiffs should I not pay. I have just written a letter appealing but any other advice would be gratefully received.

Can you prove the date you paid? How did you pay? If not by cash can you say when the payment was cashed?

PT

I paid on the internet through council website so have confirmation of payment.

If that is the case and you paid the Council must have been aware of it. However they probably can argue that the summons was issued correctly but The Council Tax (Administration & Enforcement) Regulations 1992, Part IV, Regulation 34, Para 5 states:

(5) If, after a summons has been issued in accordance with paragraph (2) but before the application is heard, there is paid or tendered to the authority an amount equal to the aggregate of—

(a)the sum specified in the summons as the sum outstanding or so much of it as remains outstanding (as the case may be); and

(b)a sum of an amount equal to the costs reasonably incurred by the authority in connection with the application up to the time of the payment or tender,

the authority shall accept the amount and the application shall not be proceeded with.

This seems to suggest it should have been dropped before it got to Court - you need to argue this with them.

PT

When you were issued with the summons you presumably had court costs added to your account as is standard, but from your post it doesn't appear as though you paid those; you just paid the two late instalments. If this is the case then that would be why your account still went to court - because the costs were still owing.

I'm going off of the assumption that the summons was correctly issued, which it sounds as though it was because they obviously hadn't received payment when they issued it. You may have paid it the day before but it's likely that they wouldn't actually get that money for 2-3 working days and they would go off of the date they received the payment, not the date you sent it.