hi i would be grateful for any help please i have received a letter from the council saying that an attachment of earnings has been made to my hubbys employers for the amount of £550 they apparently took us to court in june although we never received a letter saying they were doing so i have been paying £110 a month so do not understand why we have had the order i do have proof of payments as i do a direct bank transfer every month then to top it all off they have sent another letter for an attachment from 2009 which obviously now means that 2 are in place . i do not disagree that the £550 from this year needs paying i just don't understand why they have placed the attachment on us when i spread my payments over a year instead of the 10 months which they are in agreement with and being as we are in November and my next payment isnt due till 24th gives me 5 months to pay the remained at £110 amnth makes the outstanding £550 . the one i do not agree to is the one from 2009 last year due to my husband being on short time and myself loosing my job we had bills mounting up everywhere the council tax wasn't paid and attachment was given for 2010 at the same time a second one was added for remaining amount for 2009 these were both paid through the attachment again we were not told about it going to court and as a result we came damn close to being evicted from our home as we could not afford to pay mortgage with what council were taking and we know find ourself in the same boat we are both working and just managing to keep afloat if the council take an attachment of 17% for the first this years and then for the 2nd which i know we have already paid we will lose our house as we have a suspended eviction order on it. I am going down the council offices on Monday after having to book the day of work and was wondering if anyone could give me any advise on how i should handle this as i know from previous experience what the council tax are like also could i take my case to court to get the attachment cancelled ,if they refuse to see our side and if i did what form would i have to use please thank you

Council Tax is due to be paid on the 1 April every year. As a dispensation the Council allows you to pay by instalments usually spread over a 10 month period. Unless you pay by Direct Debit then the instalment is still due on the 1st of each month by cleared funds, therefore any payment made via the Post office say should be paid a week earlier to allow the monies to reach your account. Some Councils will allow you a little leeway others are more strict. If you are saying you pay on the 24th of the month then by the time the Council get your payment you are already nearly a month in arrears which is why I imagine they have taken the action they have.

If you are late paying they should send a reminder asking you to bring payments up to date, if you are late doing this they can cancel any payment arrangement and insist you pay the remainder of the year's Tax in full. You are then on the slippery road of the Liability Order and the consequences of enforcement which may be Attachment of Earnings/Benefits, Bailiffs, Charging Order, Bankruptcy or even Imprisonment.

You need to establish with the Council:

1 - how many Liability Orders they have

2 - when they were obtained

3 - how much each is for

4 - the period of time each covers

5 - how much is still outstanding on each one

6 - when they were passed for enforcement

If you say you have no knowledge of the LO being granted then you must also ask the Council if they have complied with:

Council Tax (Administration & Enforcement) Regulations 1992 as amended - in particular Regulation 33:

(1) Subject to paragraph (3), before a billing authority applies for a liability order it shall serve on the person against whom the application is to be made a notice (“final notice”), which is to be in addition to any notice required to be served under Part V, and which is to state every amount in respect of which the authority is to make the application

(2) A final notice may be served in respect of an amount at any time after it has become due

(3) A final notice need not be served on a person who has been served under regulation 23(1) with a reminder notice in respect of the amount concerned.

Or in other words did they comply with the issue of the notices as the Regulations state.

PT

Hi, can I suggest you fill out the affixed budget sheet showing the current position (it calculates automatically as you fill it in), and take it along to the council offices together with a copy of your suspended possession order. This will show the council that you cannot afford to have any further money deducted from your pay as it will result in you losing your home.

If you don't get any joy from them get your local councillor involved.

Budget Sheet.xls

thanks ell-een you helped me get my eviction suspend in January so i will fill in the sheet and take it down with me i had already found the suspended eviction order out to take along but had not thought to take an income sheet with me thanks again for your help

OK, let us know how you get on in case we need to take things further.

been down council they say they will not cancel attachments i offered to pay the £220 on the 24th of this month and then to pay the remained mnthly and was told no that's for this years c tax the other one from 2008/09 apparently has been sent 3 times to employers it was ignored 1st time and partly pd 2nd so this is the 3rd time now to get cleared i have written to my local mp but still need help with this the council don't seem considered that i wont be able to make my mortgage payments and that i have a suspended eviction they just want there cash please help i dont know what else to do

Do you have a telephone number for your councillor ?

no i have written will do a search to see if i can find it tho

i have found one of them we have quite a few here

You need to ring and see if you can get to see him/her asap

have rang them they are going to write to council and ask for them to send us a means assessment

dont know how quick they will be about that they did say should be this week

Perhaps ring back towards the end of the week and see if it's been done ?Was the councillor eager to help ?

it was his office that answered they took all details and said they had had a few complaints about the tactics of the council and had helped people and they would defiantly get him to write on our behalf i am going to call my other one later today have already tried but got no response

have spoken to council again they will not stop attachment at all no matter what i offer to pay towards it i can not afford to pay all in one go or i would. I have spoken to my husbands employers been told they haven't received them yet the one for this year i don't dispute i just want more time to pay the one for 2008/2009 they say has been sent once before then the council sent a fax for it to be stopped although council say they did not and in fact has been sent twice ignored the first time part paid 2nd then nothing i was under the impression they were legally bound to pay these unless directed by the council not to? i have written to the council today which i will send recorded tomorrow appealing to them again and explaining situation and enclosing budget sheet although i don't hold much hope . is there any other way other than councillors to try and get sorted can i take them to court and get a judge to look at evidence if so how do i do that?

You could send a letter with the heading "Complaint under XXXXX council's formal complaints procedure". Address it to the Complaints and Consultation Officer (if there is one at your council, otherwise address it to the Chairman). then detail in your letter that you are raising a formal complaint as your circumstances have not been taken into consideration regarding the fact that you will be unable to pay your mortgage which is already under a suspended possession order, et. etc. Make sure you send it by either recorded delivery or special delivery and keep a copy for yourselves.

Thank you Ell-enn will do, I'll make sure they are posted first thing in the morning

sorry for the late reply i have had to wait 10days for them to respond to me only to be told that although they have an income and expenditure form they will not remove the attachments or allow us to pay monthly as we were doing they will how ever apply 1 attachment at a time starting this month this may sound good in theory but if the attachments stand they will take £150 amnth and as they could/can see from our ie form once all bills are paid we have £17 left a mnth that is with there usual payment of £110 amnth so where do we find the extra £23 from it may not sound alot but in reality it is it means i have to not pay someone else the correct amount until these are paid we spend the basics on food as it is so it cant come from there and i have already cut back on gas and elec i cant go without these i have a 4 year old son. i have got my local councillor involved and i am awaiting a phone call from him any day now i have also sent a formal complaint to council and should hear by the end of the week. what with xmas just around the corner im worried sick on how we will afford this and whether i will lose my house